SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK OPERA  REVIEW

Garsington Opera  (2) – Britten,  A Midsummer Night's Dream: Soloists, Garsington Opera Orchestra / Steuart Bedford (conductor)   Trinity Boys Choir , Garsington Manor, Oxfordshire, 26.6.2010 (BK)
 

Production
Conductor - Steuart Bedford
Director - Daniel Slater
Designer - Francis O'Connor
Lighting Designer - Bruno Poet
Choreographer - Leah Hausman

Cast

Tytania - Rebecca Bottone 

Oberon - James Laing

Lysander- Andrew Staples

Demetrius - George von Bergen

Hermia - Anna Stéphany

Helena -  Katherine Manley

Bottom -  Neal Davies

Flute - Pascal Charbonneau

Quince - Jonathan Best

Snug - Sion Goronwy

Snout - Mark Wilde

Starveling - Robert Gildon

Hippolyta - Patricia Orr

Theseus - Conal Coad

Puck - Richard Durden

Cobweb - Christopher O'Brien

Peaseblossom - James Dugan

Mustard Seed - Leopold Benedict
Moth - Cameron Clark

Rebecca Bottone (Tytania) and Neal Davies (Bottom)

 

The delightful gardens and idyllic rural setting of Garsington Manor are ideal for stories about fairies and lovers and with tuneful music and - perhaps above all –  a happy ending, A Midsummer Night's Dream made the perfect farewell for the company before it moves to the Wormsley Estate next year.

Daniel Slater’s production is a little less than bucolic however, taking the action literally through a CS Lewis - like wardrobe into an alternative reality where the plot evolves in a room filled with beds and clutter reminiscent of Mary Norton’s 'Borrowers.' The fairies themselves are no stereotypes either but instead are urchins in oversized World War II army, navy and air force uniforms and the lovers are apparently playing truant from school. Equally unexpectedly, Daniel Slater’s Puck is scarcely Puckish at all, but rather an elderly fellow with a tendency to make things awry due to infirmity rather than mischief.  The Mechanicals are mostly more white collar than rude.  The whole thing is of course a dream, in which even the conductor may slide down a helter-skelter for his bow.

Musically the orchestral playing was faultless, with Steuart Bedford guiding the work with all the precision and intimate knowledge of it that one might expect; and from a vocal point of view there were very few criticisms. Oberon was a touch inaudible at times, not unreasonably given much of his music’s pitch, while Tytania was much more powerful but maybe a tad shrill at the top of her range. Even so, their interactions were always persuasive - as were those of the lovers, all of whom had been carefully cast. Neal Davies as Bottom was vocally powerful, stylishly accurate and grandiosely comic, exactly as he should be, while Pascal Charbonneau’s Flute/Thisby made full use of his stature to persuade us of his femininity. The play was a masterpiece of carefully managed incompetence, riotously funny and paced to perfection.

The final genius stroke of illuminating the stage and the Manor's truly magical gardens with hundreds of fairy lights just as dusk was settling - hats off to Lighting Designer  Bruno Poet for this – rounded off an uplifting and memorable experience, on one of England's  few genuinely warm and romantically moonlit summer evenings. No-one would have been the least bit surprised if a large white rabbit with a loudly ticking watch had turned up to guide us all back to the car park.

Bill Kenny

The move to the Wormsley Estate means that Garsington Opera needs to raise £3,000,000 almost immediately and an appeal for funds has been launched. Details on how to offer financial support are available on the Garsington Opera web site.

Picture © Mike Hoban