Primi Divi

English National Opera

Some people (English people of course) believe that the superiority of the Scottish nation exists only in the mind of the Scot. Hairy McMungo can only assume this is typical English jealousy. If Caledonia were not such a great nation it would not be the name of Hairy McMungo’s beautiful daughter. How many people in the world are there who are called England or Albion? Hairy believes there are none. And if his wee Caledonia really is the only one in the world it’s only because there is no other little lass beautiful or clever enough to bear the name.

While Hairy is on the subject he is now thinking of names for his second-born. Hairy would like to call her Iona if she is a girl and Scot if he is a boy but Mrs McMungo likes Mary and Shaun which are both far too Irish for Hairy McMungo’s tastes. He would however be very happy with the Scottish forms, Mhairi (pronounced Varry) and Iain, both great names. (When we asked Caledonia what we should call the new baby, she said ‘Money’. She’s her daddy’s girl and no mistake. Hairy wonders if she’d like a sister called Penny.)

But as Hairy was about to tell you before he was so delightfully distracted, there are people all over the world who recognise the greatness of Scotland. The Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti saw it and two of his greatest heroines, the eponymous Maria Stuarda and Lucia di Lammermoor are Scotswomen. And there’s no real reason why L’elisir d’amore and Don Pasquale shouldn’t be set in Scotland as well except that some of the men would probably have to be English.

Lucia di Lammermoor is now being performed by English National Opera and Hairy McMungo has to admit this time the English language is more appropriate than the Italian. The English translation is might be coarser than the original Scottish dialect but English is still closer to the original than the Italian.

The conductor and director, Paul Daniel and David Alden, are English and American like the two leading singers. So Daniel naturally can’t give the music a true Scottish feel but perhaps the Italian flavour will be appreciated by the mostly English audience. Alden’s production isn’t bad either, certainly the best of the ENO’s new productions this season.

Yet again Hairy McMungo must bemoan the absence of Scottish singers in the cast but he has to say that American soprano Anna Christy and English tenor Barry Banks as Edgar and Lucy (Hairy can believe there might be a Scotswoman or two called Lucia but surely no Scottish Edgardos) aren’t at all bad. Banks is one of Hairy’s favourite English tenors. There is surely some Scottish blood in there somewhere or he wouldn’t be able to play a Scotsman with such convincing poise and nobility. Nothing is too fast or too high for this fine singer and Hairy has to say that Edgar is a horribly difficult role that he wouldn’t think of attempting himself at least not without an incentive of a few million pounds.

Anna Christy is very well-respected as a performer in the USA but this will be the first time Hairy has seen her in person. She is relatively young and inexperienced and while this shows at times it’s still an impressive performance, particularly considering she’s starring opposite someone like Banks.

Mark Stone takes the role of Henry. Hairy McMungo is now more familiar with him as a Mozart singer. Recently, Stone worked his way through Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva and Guglielmo (Papageno probably isn’t cool enough). But Hairy hasn’t forgotten that one of the first roles he saw Stone in was bel canto: Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro. Henry is a bit of a challenge for him, as it’s a step up vocally even from the Rossini and not the sort of role he can make funny. But Stone is more than a handsome (if you like the English jessie look) funny man and gives a really solid performance.

Hairy McMungo heard a very interesting report today on the radio of excitement on Saturday’s opening night. Bass Clive Bayley, singing the role of Raymond lost his voice halfway through the performance and a member of the audience took over the singing while Bayley continued acting. It all sounded very dramatic and exciting, rather like when Thomas Allen collapsed at the Proms. But it wasn’t like that. While baritone Paul Whelan was indeed sitting in the audience, Hairy must dash your romantic feelings and tell you that Whelan was the ENO’s official understudy. And not only that, but he was scheduled to sing the last few performances.

Hairy has to say though that if he had the choice he would rather take over at a performance where he was the official understudy because only then could he be completely sure of getting paid. Although there is a certain charm in going up to the conductor and saying yes Hairy McMungo can save your show but he wants a thousand pounds for doing it.

At his best, Bayley gives a weightier performance than Whelan and is the more satisfying musically but Whelan gives the role a bit more character. Not that the opening night audience who saw Bayley’s acting and heard Whelan’s singing were in any way (apart from the obvious way) short-changed.

Dwayne Jones who either is or used to be one of the Young Singers made Arthur seem quite nice and even though Alice and Norman don’t have anything really important to do they are still around at important moments. The ENO were lucky enough to cast Sarah Pring and Michael Colvin who are both very good. Hairy is glad of this because he doesn’t like it when operas decrease in intensity due to less than brilliant singing. It has a very nasty habit of reminding Hairy of the price of his ticket which Hairy doesn’t want to think about when he’s trying to concentrate on someone else’s tragedy.