English Touring Opera

22nd April 2008

This is how I was expecting opera to be. Fancy costumes, not a lot of obvious acting going on, VERY loud. But this performance was the first time I actually experienced it. I’ve been to other operas by Donizetti, but they weren’t like this.

Anna Bolena was the second opera we saw in Wolverhampton. First was the Nazi Don Giovanni which Vixen reviewed. Then this. It wasn’t the mini-holiday we’d imagined. Me, Vixen, Violetta and Fit Crit’s latest girlfriend Sophie, who likes opera, but only for an hour or so. She sat through Don Giovanni, but found this one a bit much. As we were all in the middle of Wolverhampton, it meant we all had to leave. Only problem is, I can’t write a proper review.

It was good. Very exciting music, but couldn’t help wishing I could turn the volume down. Pop concerts must be louder, but that’s a noise you can kind of get caught up in. You can dance a bit, talk a bit, go out for a breather, no trouble getting back in. Opera you kind of just have to sit there and listen and keep still, and if the music does take hold you have to resist it a bit. Lovely but very demanding. A bit like Sophie really. (Don’t think she’ll mind if I say that.) The problem I had with the singing being so loud is that it seems a bit like everyone’s shouting at each other all the time. If I want to see that, I can get it at home for free in a soap opera. Opera does need confrontation because it’s a story and that’s what stories are about, but they don’t all need to be loud confrontations. It’s more interesting if each confrontation sounds different.

Anna Bolena is the person we call Anne Boleyn, and the opera is set when she’s worried Henry VIII (Enrico in the opera) is about to dump her for her attendant Jane Seymour (Giovanna). Jane feels awful about doing that to Anne. Then Anne’s ex-lover Percy shows up, which creates more problems, and Henry accuses her of sleeping with Smeaton the page as well – she hasn’t, but Smeaton later tells Henry she has. It could have been a comedy. But one thing I really do like about the music is that it makes it clear the opera is not funny at all, and I think I’d have felt the same way if I hadn’t known who the characters were. I don’t know if the was more Donizetti or the conductor, Michael Rosewell, but they did a good job. The music did have all these fast bits in that you also get in Donizetti’s and Rossini’s comedies but this was definitely more like Lucia di Lammermoor than The Elixir of Love.

Anne was sung by Julie Unwin, she probably had the biggest voice and that was a problem for me because I was so focused on the sound, I didn’t take in what she was doing with the character. Vixen said Julie Unwin used to be a mezzo and she says lots of the ex-mezzos shouldn’t have changed but I agree with her J.U. wasn’t shrill or anything like that.

Julia Riley was Jane. I remember she was in Albert Herring for Glyndebourne and I really liked her, lovely voice and great actress. She sounded totally different here, suddenly she had a big voice. She must be very versatile if she can sing in such completely different styles. I thought she sang well here, but again I wasn’t really drawn to the character – but I didn’t think she was the villain of the piece either and I suppose it would probably be very easy to see her that way when Anne is obviously the heroine.

Riccardo Simonetti sang Henry – and also Don Giovanni in one performance but can’t really imagine that! He sounded like really big bass to me not a baritone. He has a very strong stage presence though and a really elegant way of moving, I recognised him as soon as he walked in. Luciano Botelho sang very well as Percy, but he seemed to spend half the time on his knees. Fair enough when he’s with the King and probably quite natural when he’s begging Anne to take him back, but maybe director James Conway could have found him some other positions? Always good to see a tenor with no dodgy high notes even though he was one of the loud ones. Also liked Jonathan Pugsley a lot as Lord Rochford – he seemed like a really nice guy, even though the whole thing is at least partly his fault.

So actually not bad at all – but so relentlessly loud I didn’t mind leaving as much as I should have done.

Madam Caterpillar

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