Reviews

Great Opera Moments

Cosi fan Tutte in a Star Trek setting. Tosca's Scarpia transformed into a Nazi SS officer. Don Giovanni updated to 1990s London. Sounds ghastly? Well, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised. This dazzling collection of operatic cameos, spanning several centuries and featuring familiar and not-so-familiar composers, adds up to a truly exciting evening.

Each scene is fully staged and costumed, but given a contemporary setting to make it "accessible and relevant". The problem with staging extracts from operas, argues director Anna Pelly in her programme notes, is that audiences who are unfamiliar with a particular piece may not fully understand its significance without the customary build-up. She gets over this by relocating the various scenes into a well-known film or film genres. Does it work? Well, yes, I have to say that it does.

At the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building last weekend, a capacity audience sat enthralled throughout this two-hour rollercoaster ride, which featured scenes from operas by Bizet (including the sublime Au fond du Temple from The Pearlfishers), Handel, Johann Strauss, Britten and Menotti, as well as the lesser-known Flight by Jonathan Dove. Despite the contemporary settings, most of these trod a fairly safe, traditional path in their presentation, but the company took a huge risk with their updated version of old favourite Don Giovanni. This was a preview of their forthcoming production, which will be touring in 2007, and its modern setting also features a new translation by Anna Pelly. In essence, this seems to involve throwing in as many swear words as possible, so that it is almost guaranteed to shock and offend.

As always, a strong cast has been assembled, and there were some particularly classy performances from Vanessa Woodward and Elizabeth Cameron as Baba and Monica respectively in Menotti's The Medium, Cheryl Enever as Tosca and Elvira, and Byron Jackson as Leporello.

Nicola Lisle, Friday, August 4, 2006 www.theoxfordtimes.net