O heave away, heave!
Dec. 6th, 2007 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pallas_athenaLast night I was lucky enough to attend the dress rehearsal of Britten's Billy Budd, to be done in concert this weekend (Dec 7-9) by the LSO under the fiery baton of Daniel Harding. (During the rehearsal, he broke a baton about a third of the way into Act I and carried on bare-handed, scarcely a break in his stride.)
If what I saw is any indication, this is going to be something very special. Billy Budd is an opera of tremendous emotional impact in any case, and in concert it's hardly less stunning. I say unhesistatingly: go see it this weekend if you can.
What will set this performance apart is attention to detail. Davies and the LSO capture every nuance without sacrificing overall strength, and the singers-- chorus included-- pay a huge amount of attention to the lapidary matters of phrasing, dynamic and diction. From my seat at the back of the stalls I heard every. single. word., which is damned rare in opera.
The cast is excellent (and there's a fair amount of eye candy, for those who care.) Nathan Gunn is a natural Billy-- Billy's a damned hard character to play, and Gunn does him justice. Jon Lemalu, Neal Davies and Matthew Rose are in brilliant form as the trio of officers; Matthew Best as Dansker is another standout. All the supporting parts are very well sung; Andrew Kennedy as the Novice irritated me a bit with his overacting, but the Novice is an annoying character anyway, so it worked.
Gidon Saks, as the depraved master-at-arms Claggart, does a good job of conveying the character's dark menace in a concert setting. He displays perhaps more visible pain than is usual for the character-- never before have I seen a Claggart cry, for example (just for a couple of bars, towards the end of the "Beauty, handsomeness, goodness" aria). I'm not sure it's right for the character, either-- Claggart may be near to tears, may wish he could weep, but I don't think he can. Still, Saks's interpretation is undeniably powerful.
The pleasant surprise of the evening was Ian Bostridge. Remember him? Remember when he shot to prominence in the late nineties as fresh-faced young tenor eye candy? At that time his fame was mostly as a lieder recitalist; I've since seen him do well in a couple of operatic roles, most notably the Simpleton in Boris Godunov a few years ago. Still, I wasn't sure he'd have either the authority or the strength for Captain Vere, which he's singing for the first time here.
He does: just. The part demands all he's got, and he gives it. Bostridge is a thoroughbred musician, of course, so Britten's idiom gives him no trouble; the intellectual, introspective passages that would trouble a more empty-headed artist are the sort of thing Bostridge eats for breakfast. That's the easy part. Less easy are the emotional climaxes that call for fullblooded singing: and not the singing of a tortured poet, but a man o' war's captain. Bostridge seemed to be holding back a bit during some of these-- understandable, since it was only the dress rehearsal. It'll be interesting to see what happens in performance, but in any case, it's sure to be exciting.
So, like I said, go if you can. And if you go, cheer extra loud for my friend Andrew, who's singing the small but crucial role of Squeak. Hurrah!!
If what I saw is any indication, this is going to be something very special. Billy Budd is an opera of tremendous emotional impact in any case, and in concert it's hardly less stunning. I say unhesistatingly: go see it this weekend if you can.
What will set this performance apart is attention to detail. Davies and the LSO capture every nuance without sacrificing overall strength, and the singers-- chorus included-- pay a huge amount of attention to the lapidary matters of phrasing, dynamic and diction. From my seat at the back of the stalls I heard every. single. word., which is damned rare in opera.
The cast is excellent (and there's a fair amount of eye candy, for those who care.) Nathan Gunn is a natural Billy-- Billy's a damned hard character to play, and Gunn does him justice. Jon Lemalu, Neal Davies and Matthew Rose are in brilliant form as the trio of officers; Matthew Best as Dansker is another standout. All the supporting parts are very well sung; Andrew Kennedy as the Novice irritated me a bit with his overacting, but the Novice is an annoying character anyway, so it worked.
Gidon Saks, as the depraved master-at-arms Claggart, does a good job of conveying the character's dark menace in a concert setting. He displays perhaps more visible pain than is usual for the character-- never before have I seen a Claggart cry, for example (just for a couple of bars, towards the end of the "Beauty, handsomeness, goodness" aria). I'm not sure it's right for the character, either-- Claggart may be near to tears, may wish he could weep, but I don't think he can. Still, Saks's interpretation is undeniably powerful.
The pleasant surprise of the evening was Ian Bostridge. Remember him? Remember when he shot to prominence in the late nineties as fresh-faced young tenor eye candy? At that time his fame was mostly as a lieder recitalist; I've since seen him do well in a couple of operatic roles, most notably the Simpleton in Boris Godunov a few years ago. Still, I wasn't sure he'd have either the authority or the strength for Captain Vere, which he's singing for the first time here.
He does: just. The part demands all he's got, and he gives it. Bostridge is a thoroughbred musician, of course, so Britten's idiom gives him no trouble; the intellectual, introspective passages that would trouble a more empty-headed artist are the sort of thing Bostridge eats for breakfast. That's the easy part. Less easy are the emotional climaxes that call for fullblooded singing: and not the singing of a tortured poet, but a man o' war's captain. Bostridge seemed to be holding back a bit during some of these-- understandable, since it was only the dress rehearsal. It'll be interesting to see what happens in performance, but in any case, it's sure to be exciting.
So, like I said, go if you can. And if you go, cheer extra loud for my friend Andrew, who's singing the small but crucial role of Squeak. Hurrah!!
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on 2010-12-04 10:36 pm (UTC)Big fan of Bostridge. He looks so ethereal and fragile... born for these suffering Britten characters.
And Claggart crying? Awww.... I want to hug him! (Ok... I'd hug any basso profondo character)