June 14, 2006
An enchanting May Night in June
Garsington Manor’s stunning and intricate grounds and intimate atmosphere proved an inspirational setting for last night’s fresh production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s convoluted comic opera, May Night (Mayskaya noch). First performed in St Petersburg in 1880, Rimsky-Korsakov’s music and libretto weave a spellbinding tale of love and bewitchment, evocatively inspired by traditional folk-songs. Based on Gogol’s version of an old German folk-tale brought to the Ukraine, it combines some classic story-telling elements: a multi-layered tale of love and rivalry, loathed step-mothers, water-nymph transformations and revenge by drowning … unravelled through a colourful yet harmonious fabric of balanced Classical orchestration, subtly forefronting beautiful and characteristically nationalistic peasant themes. Story-telling, rhymes, gestural dance and mime bring a flavour of fairy-tale village life, producing a timeless sense of Russia, from feudal to Soviet eras, aptly evoking its continued, emphatic folk-tale tradition and quirky, recognisably Gogolian humour.
The young, yet already acclaimed Peter Wedd, played a highly convincing, aptly sensual central performance as Levko, son of Cossack village elder and chief narrator. Levko’s gentle tenor was well balanced by his betrothed, Hanna, played by Antonia Sotgiu, whose full-bodied voice and character, at such a young age, underline her merit as a rising star. Strongest, perhaps, was the forceful presence of Levko’s one-eyed father, the lascivious village mayor and chief buffoon, convincingly portrayed by bass-baritone, Darren Jeffery. His anecdotal meeting with Catherine the Great was particularly loaded, and cunningly used as a symmetrical device. Soprano Michelle Walton’s sensitivity as Pannochka, and the hilariously inebriated charcoal-burner, Kalenik (baritone, Geoffrey Dalton) were also outstanding. These unerringly weighty portrayals were backed perfectly by the boisterous, virile peasantry and enchanting, despairing, weary water-nymphs. Their lilting songs, and the ballad of the swan and the moon, were mesmerising.
Scenery and background completed the picture. Garsington’s Italian garden was artfully employed, providing a maze of yews, through which the peasantry wove, effusing youth and mischief. The rough-painted, blue set was a masterfully simplistic method of evoking a watery and dream-like backdrop; made more atmospheric still by the evening’s dogged rainfall. Mobile, rugged blue houses, unpacked like Russian dolls, were inspirational, simultaneously relating perspective and peasant hierarchy in their varied sizes. Certainly the costumes were simple, even anachronistic, but they befitted the tone, isolating even the nymphs as individuals. The sister-in-law (mezzo-soprano Clarissa Meek, who also played the spiky mother-in-law) could have walked happily down Oxford High Street in her outfit, but this accentuated her petulant and relentlessly mocked persona (revealing that misogynistic in-law jokes are neither new nor localised, and still humiliatingly funny). All-in-all, the care taken to produce a consistently bewitching, at times poignant atmosphere was unquestionable, belying the inappropriate murmur from one of the dispersing crowd that the set staging had been less than careful and the lighting underused.
Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night is nothing challenging yet is rarely heard, and the combination of Olivia Fuchs’ vivacious direction and Conductor, Elgar Howarth’s strong brass leanings and interest in contemporary composition made this interpretation particularly refreshing.
Befittingly, this production precedes a little-known opera by Mozart (and his friends), reconstructed from ‘looted’ manuscript sections from Russia, to confirm Garsington’s annual ambition to promote little-known works and operatic debuts.
Garsington Manor’s stunning and intricate grounds and intimate atmosphere proved an inspirational setting for last night’s fresh production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s convoluted comic opera, May Night (Mayskaya noch). First performed in St Petersburg in 1880, Rimsky-Korsakov’s music and libretto weave a spellbinding tale of love and bewitchment, evocatively inspired by traditional folk-songs. Based on Gogol’s version of an old German folk-tale brought to the Ukraine, it combines some classic story-telling elements: a multi-layered tale of love and rivalry, loathed step-mothers, water-nymph transformations and revenge by drowning … unravelled through a colourful yet harmonious fabric of balanced Classical orchestration, subtly forefronting beautiful and characteristically nationalistic peasant themes. Story-telling, rhymes, gestural dance and mime bring a flavour of fairy-tale village life, producing a timeless sense of Russia, from feudal to Soviet eras, aptly evoking its continued, emphatic folk-tale tradition and quirky, recognisably Gogolian humour.
The young, yet already acclaimed Peter Wedd, played a highly convincing, aptly sensual central performance as Levko, son of Cossack village elder and chief narrator. Levko’s gentle tenor was well balanced by his betrothed, Hanna, played by Antonia Sotgiu, whose full-bodied voice and character, at such a young age, underline her merit as a rising star. Strongest, perhaps, was the forceful presence of Levko’s one-eyed father, the lascivious village mayor and chief buffoon, convincingly portrayed by bass-baritone, Darren Jeffery. His anecdotal meeting with Catherine the Great was particularly loaded, and cunningly used as a symmetrical device. Soprano Michelle Walton’s sensitivity as Pannochka, and the hilariously inebriated charcoal-burner, Kalenik (baritone, Geoffrey Dalton) were also outstanding. These unerringly weighty portrayals were backed perfectly by the boisterous, virile peasantry and enchanting, despairing, weary water-nymphs. Their lilting songs, and the ballad of the swan and the moon, were mesmerising.
Scenery and background completed the picture. Garsington’s Italian garden was artfully employed, providing a maze of yews, through which the peasantry wove, effusing youth and mischief. The rough-painted, blue set was a masterfully simplistic method of evoking a watery and dream-like backdrop; made more atmospheric still by the evening’s dogged rainfall. Mobile, rugged blue houses, unpacked like Russian dolls, were inspirational, simultaneously relating perspective and peasant hierarchy in their varied sizes. Certainly the costumes were simple, even anachronistic, but they befitted the tone, isolating even the nymphs as individuals. The sister-in-law (mezzo-soprano Clarissa Meek, who also played the spiky mother-in-law) could have walked happily down Oxford High Street in her outfit, but this accentuated her petulant and relentlessly mocked persona (revealing that misogynistic in-law jokes are neither new nor localised, and still humiliatingly funny). All-in-all, the care taken to produce a consistently bewitching, at times poignant atmosphere was unquestionable, belying the inappropriate murmur from one of the dispersing crowd that the set staging had been less than careful and the lighting underused.
Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night is nothing challenging yet is rarely heard, and the combination of Olivia Fuchs’ vivacious direction and Conductor, Elgar Howarth’s strong brass leanings and interest in contemporary composition made this interpretation particularly refreshing.
Befittingly, this production precedes a little-known opera by Mozart (and his friends), reconstructed from ‘looted’ manuscript sections from Russia, to confirm Garsington’s annual ambition to promote little-known works and operatic debuts.