Royal Opera House
Images: © ROH. By Catherine Ashmore |
Die Feldmarschallin, Fürstin Werdenberg –
Renée Fleming
Der Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau – Matthew
RoseOctavian – Alice Coote
Herr von Faninal – Jochen Schmeckenbecker
Sophie – Sophie Bevan
Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin, Noble Widow – Miranda Keys
Valzacchi – Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke
Annina – Helene Schneidermann
Police Inspector – Scott Conner
The Marschallin’s Major-domo – Samuel Sakker
Faninal’s Major-domo – Thomas Atkins
Italian Singer – Giorgio Berrugi
Milliner – Kiera Lyness
Innkeeper – Alasdair Elliott
Notary – Jeremy White
Animal Seller – Luke Price
Doctor – Andrew H. Sinclair
Boots – Jonathan Fisher
Noble Orphans – Katy Batho, Deborah Peake-Jones, Andrea Hazell
Marschallin’s Lackeys/Waiters – Andrew H. Sinclair, Lee Hickenbottom, Dominic Barrand, Bryan Secombe
Mohammed – James Wintergrove
Leopold – Atli Gunnarsson
Hairdresser – Robert Curtis
Baron Ochs’s Retinue – Thomas Barnard, Dominic Barrand, Nigel Cliffe, Jonathan Fisher, Paul Parfitt, Bryan Secombe
Musicians – Andrew Macnair, Andrew O’Connor, Luke Price, Alexander Wall
Coachmen – Thomas Barnard, Nigel Cliffe, Jonathan Coad, Christopher Lackner
Dancers, Actors, Child Singers
Robert
Carsen (director)
Paul
Steinberg (set designs)Brigitte Reiffenstuel (costumes)
Robert Carsen and Peter van Praet (lighting)
Philippe Giraudeau (choreography)
Royal Opera Chorus (chorus master: William Spaulding)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Andris Nelsons (conductor)
If
Der Rosenkavalier subtly counsels us
against nostalgia, walking us through our own constructionism and that of
others, layering further experience and memory, real, imagined, or more likely,
somewhere in between, this new Royal Opera production unwittingly offered something
of a countervailing argument. As we are now so wearily aware, the United
Kingdom’s cultural inferiority and isolation are likely only to increase over the
coming months, nay years, of Maying. Very few will care; of them, many will
decamp to what was once quaintly known as ‘the Continent’; others will not
unreasonably seek a degree of refuge in other, actually better times. Only the
truly ignorant, of culture and of history, would hold out any hope for this
miserable island’s prospects, having ‘taken back control’. Likewise, for all
the gloss we saw, far less often heard, on stage, only those ignorant of
operatic life ‘abroad’, and indeed in earlier years here in London, would fail
to feel, at best, regret.
Trailed
unofficially as Renée Fleming’s farewell to the Covent Garden stage, the
production suggested that it was not before time. Fleming has never been much
of an actress, although she retains an undeniable presence. (Big, expensive
costumes doubtless help, especially in the third act, but it is not just that.)
There were, to be fair, moments in which she danced along to the (somewhat
fitful) waltzes in the first act, but otherwise, there was little beyond
generalised and sometimes downright inappropriate facial gestures. Her
inability not only to project but even to sustain her lines, hardly helped by perversely
dragging tempi from Andris Nelsons whenever she set foot on stage, made for a
sad experience indeed, however much the fans may have oohed and aahed at her
wardrobe.
The Marschallin (Renée Fleming), Sophie (Sophie Bevan) |
Nelsons
was at least as much at fault. He has conducted the opera before, but it often
did not sound like it, the performance suggestive of a superior run-through,
even sight-reading. Having opened in strangely aggressive fashion, he ground
the first act to a halt. Once the Marschallin’s retinue had been dispersed, the
remainder felt like an act, and a tedious one at that, to itself. Whether he
were responding to Fleming, or somehow trying to highlight her aurally, I do
not know; it certainly did not work. Too often, phrases were simply left
hanging, even disintegrating. If the second act and earlier sections of the
third – infernal cuts notwithstanding – marked a great improvement,
listlessness was again the order of the day, as we drew ever so gradually to a
close. Time was – yes, I know stopping the clocks will not help us – when the
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House could sound not unlike one of its great ‘Continental’
cousins. Perhaps it still can, under, say, Semyon Bychkov. However, it is now well-nigh
impossible to ignore the long musical decline of the house since the departure
of Bernard Haitink. There were a good few moments of glorious sheen, but there
was a good deal of scrappiness too. Viennese idiom, such as it was, too often sounded
forced. Go to Dresden, to Berlin, to Munich, even, on a good day, to Vienna, go
indeed to many a smaller German theatre, to hear what this score and others can
sound like. And listen to a conductor such as Christian
Thielemann, almost always at his best in Strauss, to hear how infinite
flexibility can, indeed must, be married to a sense of the whole; or listen to
the great conductors of the past, to Karajan, to Krauss, to Kempe, to the
Kleibers, perhaps even, if feeling truly adventurous, progressing to a
conductor whose name did not begin with ‘K’.
What
of the rest of the cast? Alice Coote’s Octavian was a bit of a loose cannon
(with apologies to the extravagant World War One recreations chez Faninal). At her best, she offered
a spirited, rich-toned performance; at other times, there was a distinct lack
of focus. Whether the relative lack of refinement dramatically were Coote’s or director,
Robert Carsen’s idea, it was not, I am afraid, a good one. Matthew Rose’s Ochs
was much better: less the boorish oaf, more the slightly, but only slightly,
past-his-sell-by-date country cousin, who could still summon up a soupçon of
charm when he made the effort. Sophie Bevan’s Sophie was very much in line with
(welcome) contemporary fashion: her own woman, with agency, no mere annoyance. Her
vocal performance was not bettered and rarely approached by others on stage. All,
however, should be thanked for their excellent diction; Hofmannsthal’s words
could always be clearly discerned. (That goes for Fleming too.)
Ochs (Matthew Rose) |
Jochen
Schmeckenbecher’s Faninal seemed oddly subdued, at least vocally; I wondered
whether he would have been happier in a smaller house. It was a pity to hear coarseness
creeping into Giorgio Berrugi’s rendition of the Italian Singer’s aria, but the
many, many ‘smaller’ roles were generally well taken, Perhaps the most noteworthy
for me were Helene Schneidermann’s cleverly scheming Annina, Alasdair Elliott’s outrageous Innkeeper
as transvestite Master/Mistress of Ceremonies, and Scott Conner’s calm,
confident Police Commissioner. (One might well understand why the Marschallin
departed with him rather than with Faninal, although I am not sure that it made
a great deal of dramatic sense here.)
Carsen’s
production is a frustration, and not only because it runs dangerously close to
his earlier staging, for the Salzburg Festival, although divergences often intrigue;
such layering of reception is surely not inappropriate for such a work.
However, the first and second acts seem – not in a knowing way – to rely too
much on former glories, coming across as attempts to make a former, sharper
production look different. (Did those I heard loudly praising Carsen know his
earlier production? I have my doubts.) Designs from Paul Steinberg and Brigitte
Reiffenstuel, however impressive in themselves, are made to do too much of the
work. The note of ambiguity concerning where, or rather when, we are during the
second act, is, however, an excellent touch. Are we gearing up for war,
uniforms and indeed the aforementioned weaponry ever-present? Or, are we to
understand from the field medical assistance afforded Ochs, that we are now in
its midst? The trench movements of Ochs’s retinue (on leave?) certainly suggest
so. Alternatively, might this be an imagined future from the Marschallin’s
comfortable 1911?
The
third act sets its impressive seal on such ruminations, or at least the first
half of it does. Initially, it too seems as though it might follow earlier
Carsen too closely, but wisely, no attempt is made to replicate the
extraordinary Salzburg visual spectacle of multiple brothel rooms (nor, indeed,
the horse). We seem to have moved, or imagined ourselves, into the 1920s, to a
world in which sexual ‘decadence’ and ‘depravity’ (for those of a ‘Brexit’
disposition, in any case) run riot, whilst still recognisably, increasingly so, a projection from where we began (and indeed may still 'be'). Octavian’s, or rather Mariandel’s, forwardness, is
perhaps the most intriguing development. Where she ‘should’ be a (relatively)
innocent victim, here this ‘virgin’ promises to take Ochs to places he may
never have dreamed of, or at least would rather not have done. The already
fascinating sexual politics of the opera take another twist, such as would
surely have shocked the straitlaced Benjamin Britten, who apparently disapproved
of its ‘lesbianism’ (!)
Alas,
the rest of the act, whether knowingly or otherwise, simply offers relative
withdrawal, as it were. A large stage and a large bed are its focus, Octavian
and Sophie rather unnecessarily beginning to further their acquaintance. The parallel created with the opening scene need surely not be presented with quite such heavy-handedness.At the
very close, it seems as though we shall truly return to Salzburg, where a
gunshot frighteningly heralded the coming of war. (That production stayed where
it was, rather than peering into the future, as Carsen does here.) The
reappearance of cannons, seemingly pointed at a drunken Mohammed, suggest
something similar, but instead they misfire (perhaps an all too telling metaphor),
soldiers falling bathetically to the ground themselves, and the liveried
servant continues along its way. I think I can discern a point being made here,
but it is not made very clearly.
Mohammed (James Wintergrove) |
Another
baffling aspect relates to, what seems to be a kleindeutsch rather than an Austrian setting. (The message of the paintings
we see, visual art so often a Carsen device, is ambiguous.) I am afraid I found
myself baffled by visual references to the ‘other’ Kaiserreich and its successor republic. The antics of the tavern
seem very much of Weimar. Even the Grecian frieze of the Faninal mansion looks
more Berlin than Vienna. (To my, perhaps vulgar eyes, it does not look so very nouveau riche, more akin to a Wilhelmine
museum room.) Is a point being made about Strauss’s native Bavaria, perhaps
even Strauss himself, having made the ‘wrong’ choice? If so, it remains
obscure. There is, all considered, simply too much that is either too obscure
or too obvious, suggestive, rightly or wrongly, of an unwelcome degree of
directorial haste.
In
many respects, then, this proved a missed opportunity, laced with tantalising
hints of how much better things might have been – might still be, if only they/we
were to get our act together. It could have been far worse; perhaps it might
improve during the run; and yet… It was, one might say, a ‘soft Brexit’ Rosenkavalier, albeit with hints of our Poundland
Fürstin Resi’s ‘red,
white, and blue’ variety. Note to directors: do not, under any
circumstances, accept my Konzept.
It will neither end nor even start well.