Royal Opera

Hairy McMungo has found the Royal Opera’s season to be satisfactory but rather disappointing this year so he is relieved as well as delighted to announce that The Queen of Spades will be a great success. Francesca Zambello’s production is surprising at times bur much more sensible than it could have been. Hairy McMungo thinks you have to get used to it but it doesn’t take long and the singing is excellent even by the Royal Opera’s standards – their usual standards, not this season’s standards which have been fairly low.

Even with Hairy McMungo’s psychic abilities, he is confused about who is singing the leading male role. The ROH site says that Vladimir Galouzine will sing Gherman and Vitali Tarachenko will sing Hermann. Hairy McMungo has always thought these are alternative spellings of the same character. Hairy is not sure which of them will sing the role but he can say that whoever it is is in very good form vocally and his acting is very good too.

Liza was supposed to be Katarina Dalayman but she withdrew because she was pregnant which does seem like a good reason to Hairy McMungo. There are some roles you can sing when pregnant (Hairy McMungo assumes, not ever having been pregnant himself although he did get cravings when Caledonia was on the way) but when the character is supposed to be a virgin it spoils the story a bit. Mlada Khudoley has taken over the role. Hairy would have chosen a Scotswoman but Mlada is a very sympathetic performer.

Larissa Diadkova takes the role of the Countess and had Hairy McMungo not been a brave Scotsman he would have been terrified. This is an even more striking a performance than Hairy expected from this great singer. Gerald Finley is also on very good form singing his first Yeletsky. His singing alone is probably worth the price of the ticket if you’re in the very cheapest seats. It’s not often Hairy can say that. Not about one individual performer who wasn’t born in Scotland. Finley’s Yeletsky is very likeable which makes the love triangle situation stand out even more. William Dazeley sings the role in the final performance. He’s good but like most baritones in the role he is quite easy to forget about.

All the smaller roles are performed well. Robin Leggate, Jeremy White and Jette Parker Young Artists Krzysztof Szumanski and half-Scot Andrew Sritheran make Chekalinsky, Surin, Narumov and Chaplitsky into real characters, something Hairy has never seen before, as well as singing very well. Scottish tenor Alasdair Elliot is his usual scene-stealing self as the Major-Domo and Scottish mezzo Elizabeth Sikora was very good as Masha. Carole Wilson who was a brilliant Countess for Opera Holland Park is also a very good Governess. Young Artist Kishani Jayasinghe is promising in her ROH debut as Prilepa and Enkelejda Shkosa is excellent as Paulina but he doesn’t want to (p)review her too often because her name is too difficult to spell.

HAIRY McMUNGO

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