642 posts
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Post by jek on Apr 13, 2018 7:11:33 GMT
Well this was fun. I'm sure that other people on this board can give a more learned reflection on the piece but from a purely enjoyment point of view this has so much to recommend it. Big voices, big design (I'm guessing 1970's since I swear we had wallpaper like that in the wedding scene in the council tower block flat I grew up in) and lots of big brass. It is long (3 hrs 20 minutes) and we did lose much of our circulation in the Row R of the ampitheatre seats we were in but it really didn't feel that long. It was my 16 year old daughter's first visit to the opera at the ROH and as someone studying both music and Russian history at A Level it was a bit of a gift (much like Death of Stalin). I only knew the story from the film that came out a couple of years ago but the programme notes were excellent - as was the programme more generally which, given its price, was welcome.
My daughter was thrilled to overhear a very elderly lady saying with great feeling 'I can never hear enough Shostakovich' - a proper lesson there for her that some interests are well worth cultivating as they can stay with you - and give you pleasure - for a long lifetime.
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Post by gibbo1956 on Apr 13, 2018 9:52:17 GMT
Agree with this. Why don't all operas have an additional ambulatory brass band to cheer up the dull bits?
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Post by asfound on Apr 13, 2018 10:10:47 GMT
I enjoyed it very much as a huge Shostakovich fan but if I'm honest I found myself preferring the direction Alice Birch's script went in to Shostakovich's libretto. But it was definitely good fun - the chorus could have been tighter and the music wasn't quite as deep nor as intense I've heard before, but these are nitpicks. I did find the offstage brass walking back and forth behind me quite distracting but that's the cheap seats I guess.
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1,347 posts
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Post by tmesis on Apr 20, 2018 22:15:57 GMT
I don't know how I managed to miss this production the first time round but I'm very glad I caught up with it today. It's got a bit of everything: erotic wrestling, a peripatetic brass band and the fastest bit of wallpapering (flock, of course; it is Richard Jones!) you've ever seen, either on stage or in real life. Jones is definitely not my favourite director but he successfully encompasses all the many different moods of this wonderful opera from the sensational, to the comic to the tragic. It really is a great opera, to be ranked along side other twentieth century classics like Peter Grimes and Wozzeck.
Musically the performance was first rate with Pappano in the pit holding it all together. Vocally the stand outs were Eva-Maria Westbroek and John Tomlinson. Westbroek was a superb Katrina - she now has real Wagnerian heft to her voice but there is also great delicacy too. She was able to hit the cruelly isolated piano high notes with total security in her first aria. Tomlinson was a fantastic Boris. He is now 71 and the voice is still in excellent shape. He is also a superb actor. I've seen this great singer throughout his career - when he was in his twenties as Figaro at ENO and then, not forgetting as his voice developed, one of the best Wotans in the world (beloved at Bayreuth.)
There have been some questionable productions but musically this has been one of the best years ever at The Garden.
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421 posts
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Post by Distant Dreamer... on Apr 29, 2018 10:39:16 GMT
I totally agree tmesis...this was one of the finest performances i've ever seen at ROH.
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1,249 posts
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Post by joem on Apr 29, 2018 11:18:34 GMT
Missed this thanks to British Airways - the world's favourite aspiring low-cost airline. I hope the production is revived at some point.
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421 posts
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Post by Distant Dreamer... on Apr 29, 2018 15:09:44 GMT
Missed this thanks to British Airways - the world's favourite aspiring low-cost airline. I hope the production is revived at some point. Well the last revival before this was 2006...so you may have to wait a while and it's doubtful that John Tomlinson will return to the production if it takes that long! I was hopeful they had filmed this production, but I don't think it was on the schedule  |
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