CityLife

Idomeneo

Buxton Festival: Idomeneo / Alcina
Buxton Opera House
July 13, 2010

The highlight event of the Buxton Festival so far – for me – has been the concert performance of Mozart’s Idomeneo, in Richard Strauss’s version of 1931.

It boasts the starriest line-up of soloists of any of the festival operas, but it is simply a concert, and if there is a minus point it’s that some of them stand and sing their notes with little attempt at acting – the honourable exceptions being a highly dramatic Mary Plazas (Ismene), and a moving Rebecca Ryan (Ilia) towards the end.

The great plus point is that this is an extraordinary hybrid of two composers’ thoughts, 150 years apart. It’s not just a free, modern-instrument transcription of ‘early music’ (Mozart wasn’t in that category anyway in 1931) – it’s Mozart as respectfully, and rather whimsically, adapted by Strauss. 

‘Mozart with whipped cream’, one wag had it – it’s certainly a Wiener Mélange, and just as tasty.

Its great glory, which takes you by surprise even though you know it’s coming, is the glorious quartet-and-chorus finale Strauss composed, in his own richest style, to go just before Mozart’s ending. But there’s sly humour, too – not least in the first major dollop of Straussian Schlagobers, which describes the appearance of a monster from the deep (and is followed by some creamy delights for the soloists).

One of the charms of Andrew Greenwood’s presentation of the work is that he was working with the Northern Chamber Orchestra in pretty well its usual numbers – not the massed ranks of the Vienna Philharmonic – which enabled him to offer us the unalloyed Mozart (and there’s plenty of that) with all the vim and clarity it should rightly have. But when it came to the finale, his sense of shape and pace for a very different sound was excellent, too.

It needs singers of versatility, and for the same reasons. With Jonathan Lemalu (High Priest) joining the ensemble for the last act, there was a rich underpinning to the quartet, and Victoria Simmonds (the ‘trouser’ role of Idamantes) was capable of adapting to differing contexts well. 

Paul Nilon (Idomeneo) brought his characteristic earnestness and power to his task, with his finest hour in act two.

The combined chorus of the festival opera and Buxton Madrigal Singers was magnificent, and the NCO whipped up their storm well, too.

Opera Theatre Company, Ireland’s national touring opera group, again brought a Handel opera to the festival – considered by some to be his greatest: Alcina.

It was made for spectacle in its original 1735 version: thunder and lightning and moving mountains are all in the stage directions. Annilese Miskimmon’s production brings it down to a neatly portable (though versatile) set and relies greatly on lighting (Tina McHugh) for its effects. The costumes are nondescript, with swords appearing alongside modern dress in the last act where their use is inescapable, but not in the first where they are still mentioned.

The story is exotic and irrational enough – Alcina is a witch and lives on an island with her sister, Morgana. She’s taken Ruggiero prisoner and enchanted him, and his betrothed, Bradamante, tries to rescue him disguised as a man. Oronte is also a captive, and in love with Morgana – but she rather fancies the disguised Bradamante, who’s calling herself Riccardo (her brother).

After that it gets complicated – but at least in English translation you stand a chance of following it (with a synopsis). 

There was some fine singing from in particular Sinéad Campbell-Wallace and Emma Morwood as the two witches (who get a generous slice of the show-off stuff) and Mark Milhofer as Oronte and Julian Hubbard (his side-kick Melisso).

Stephen Wallace has the daunting task of sustaining the high-voice role of Ruggiero, a feat in itself, and Doreen Curran is equal to the many facets of Bradamante.

The final act was well worked out, though earlier there had been points where more imagination would have helped. Handling a da capo aria by sending the character round the back of the scenery to re-emerge in a previous frame of mind isn’t always the best solution, and some characters went into slow motion every time a ritornello came by.

Alcina is repeated July 16 and 21; Idomeneo on July 17 and 23.

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