Reviews

Proms on the Pond

Is it the case that David Blunkett introduced `citizenship exams' for would be immigrants? If so, and there are any who feel in need of a crash course in the essence of England, an evening at the Sunningwell Festival will surely do the trick.

Opera stages on lakes (Bregenz, for instance) have a long history on the conti nent, but it takes a tiny, secluded Oxford shire village to build one on its own pond, neatly situated between the pub and the church. (The church, I should add, is mag­nificent late 13th-century, and the pond water has traditional healing properties.)

On Saturday, Opera Anywhere did justice to this enchanting venue with a programme of opera excerpts ranging from competent to first-rate.

Emphatically among the latter was the opening Carmen sequence, notable for the appearance of a gifted young American Carmen in Tara Melia Hunt and a first class Escamillo in Edwin Hawkes. Hunt's mezzo has a warm, expressive bloom, but there was steel within the velvet as she warned us 'prends garde a toi'. Excellent French diction, too - she vividly reminded me of Tatiana Troyanos.

Edwin Hawkes's beautiful voice was a great feature of the operas Prof John Caldwell has presented in Oxford over the last few years, and it was a delight to hear him not only as a suave Escamillo, but (fresh from Garsington's production) in extracts from Mozart's Figaro, with Lorena Stipani a first-rate Susanna.

Slightly less polished, though well vocalised, was Nick Gee as the `other' Figaro - Rossini's Barber, with Rebecca Mitchell -Farmer as a lively Rosina. The same soprano was also an excellent Mallika in the well-known Lakme duet; Annabel Molyneux gave us a lovely `nightingale' aria from Granados's Goyescas, and Lorena Stipani a truly knock-out `O mio babbino taro'.

Supremely, even sublimely English, however, was the Tales of Hoffmann `Bar carolle' sung in a rubber dinghy rather than a gondola - and, of course, the final audience-songs, in which we ploughed our way from I Vow to Thee My Country to Land of Hope and Glory under the vigorous baton of the composer Nick Kenworthy Browne, and with Lyndall Dawson (as throughout) an expert, unflappable accompanist.

Hugh Vickers, The Oxford Times