Welcome to London Grip, a forum for reviews of books, shows & events – plus quarterly postings of new poetry. Our most recent posts are listed below. Older posts can be explored via the search box and topic list. For more information & guidelines on submitting reviews or poems please visit our Home page.
What is so shocking about this opera written by Mozart in 1790 is how contemporary it is. This co-production with New York’s Metropolitan Opera was first seen at the Coliseum in 2014. Phelim McDermott’s Improbable production stages the work in Coney Island during the 1950s. The design by Tom Pyne gives us the fairground peopled by a wild collection of drag queens, acrobats, fire-eaters and sword swallowers, who watch the sexual double-dealing as permanent observers.
But this is not merely a bourgeois comedy of sexual manners; rather it is an examination of the impossibility of monogamy. This opera is very much a work for our times because, unusually, the unfaithful women at the centre of the narrative, are not punished for their erotic desires.
Praise must be given to conductor Dinis Sousa for eliciting a style of acting and singing, of course with McDermott, which takes the operatic into the realm of accessible song-speak.
This is achieved by the way Lucy Crowe as Fiordiligi, Taylor Raven as Dorabella, Joshua Blue as Fernando and Darwin Prakash as Gugllielmo; reveal their characters with complexity. The transition from aria, duet, recitative and solo is seamless. Andrew Foster-Williams has huge charisma in his portrayal of the trickster-philosopher Don Alfonso. The stand-out performance is Ailish Tynan as Despina. Her Irish accent adds a cultural level that brings an appealing layer to the production.
My only quibble is with the design’s lack of progression in its narrative. The visuals of the Coney Island fairground are amusing but all is revealed in the early scenes with nothing spectacular to add oomph in the final beat.
The witty libretto by Mozart’s collaborator Lorenzo Da Ponte is smartly translated by Jeremy Sams. Its refreshing laugh-out-loud quality, makes us giggle at ourselves.
Cosi fan tutte.
English National Opera
to Feb 21
Julia Pascal
What is so shocking about this opera written by Mozart in 1790 is how contemporary it is. This co-production with New York’s Metropolitan Opera was first seen at the Coliseum in 2014. Phelim McDermott’s Improbable production stages the work in Coney Island during the 1950s. The design by Tom Pyne gives us the fairground peopled by a wild collection of drag queens, acrobats, fire-eaters and sword swallowers, who watch the sexual double-dealing as permanent observers.
But this is not merely a bourgeois comedy of sexual manners; rather it is an examination of the impossibility of monogamy. This opera is very much a work for our times because, unusually, the unfaithful women at the centre of the narrative, are not punished for their erotic desires.
Praise must be given to conductor Dinis Sousa for eliciting a style of acting and singing, of course with McDermott, which takes the operatic into the realm of accessible song-speak.
This is achieved by the way Lucy Crowe as Fiordiligi, Taylor Raven as Dorabella, Joshua Blue as Fernando and Darwin Prakash as Gugllielmo; reveal their characters with complexity. The transition from aria, duet, recitative and solo is seamless. Andrew Foster-Williams has huge charisma in his portrayal of the trickster-philosopher Don Alfonso. The stand-out performance is Ailish Tynan as Despina. Her Irish accent adds a cultural level that brings an appealing layer to the production.
My only quibble is with the design’s lack of progression in its narrative. The visuals of the Coney Island fairground are amusing but all is revealed in the early scenes with nothing spectacular to add oomph in the final beat.
The witty libretto by Mozart’s collaborator Lorenzo Da Ponte is smartly translated by Jeremy Sams. Its refreshing laugh-out-loud quality, makes us giggle at ourselves.
By Julia Pascal • added recently on London Grip, opera, theatre • Tags: Julia Pascal, opera, theatre