This is Sophie again not Cunning Little Vixen, they won't add me as a co-author because they'd have to pay extra.
As it’s near the end of 2008 but not near the end of the opera season I thought we should do reviews of different opera-related things. I hope the others like the idea because if I’ve written this review for nothing I’m going to get really annoyed.
The Royal Opera House programmes are big and red and they cost £6. It’s a lot for a programme but they always have loads of good articles which tell you about not just the opera but bits about the composer too. Sometimes they write stupid stuff which I don’t agree with but the thing about opera is that it’s a subjective thing and not everyone’s going to agree with everyone. Sarah Lenton is my favourite writer because she writes really clearly so I always know what she’s going on about and she’s always interesting. She did 3 articles for Hansel and Gretel, I thought it was a crap opera but I enjoyed reading her programme notes.
The programme covers look really smart and they match the carpet but it does get a bit boring especially as the ballet programmes are red too. They do have the titles of the opera on the spine (which a lot of programmes don’t because they’re not fat enough) but for some reason when they’re all on the shelf together the black writing doesn’t show up very well against the red, at least not in my bedroom. So if I’m looking for one particular programme it often takes me ages. Sometimes it’s quicker to find a programme without the name on the spine because as long as I remember what colour it is I can find it quite easily.
The Hansel and Gretel programme was different from most ROH programmes because it had a picture of the woods on the front and loads of production photos inside of both casts. I think the ROH should do this a lot more often. Production photos are quite common inside the programme but you don’t always have them and often they’re of the last cast anyway not the current cast.
The English National Opera programmes are much better as far as the colour system goes. They did have a stage of making them all purple and even though I love purple nearly as much as I love pink the colour didn’t suit every opera. Now they’re all different colours and the ENO seems to try to choose just the right colour for each opera and that really adds to the opera experience. They have pictures on the front too, often from the production and it’s always a relevant picture. I think that’s a really good idea, as we can’t take photographs in the auditorium it is nice to have one picture to take home.
But inside the programme things are usually a bit disappointing. The biographies don’t always have pictures with them which is quite annoying, what am I supposed to do during the interval if there aren’t any pictures of hot guys (or hot girls, I’m not fussy) to dribble over? The programme notes are usually accompanied by really lovely pictures that usually aren’t of the production but are related of it so that’s one good thing. The Riders of the Sea pictures were gorgeous. ENO programmes also have a lot of adverts for upcoming opera performances from other companies which is a great way of finding out what’s on.
But the articles are usually quite difficult to read. They go across the page instead of in columns and the pages are very big so the lines seem a bit too long. Also they’re a bit dry and heavy without a lot of humour. But they also have a lot of very short extracts like from poems and letters and they’re easier to read. And at least the text is really bold which you need because the lighting isn’t very good if you’re sitting towards the back of the Upper Circle or the Balcony.
Welsh National Opera is another company that has all its programmes the same colour. They’re all white. But that doesn’t matter because I usually only go to see WNO once or twice a year so I haven’t got enough of them to get confused. They have really nice pictures on the front, something very simple that relates to the production that always looks really artistic. And I love the way they have the synopsis written in Welsh because my boyfriend’s Welsh and I’m trying to learn it. He’s teaching me how to mutate body parts at the moment. It’s fun.
The Opera Holland Park programmes are really gorgeous and well worth £10 even if you’re only seeing 1 performance. They’ve got some really good articles written in nice fonts and they’re really colourful. The cast list programmes are separate, you can get them free on the night if you’ve bought the big programme, if you haven’t they’re £3. Maybe that’s a little bit much to pay considering most £3 programmes have a lot more in them. But it kind of serves you right really for not buying the big programmes. The little programmes have got biographies for all the cast and one thing that’s really good is it says what other roles they’ve done for OHP so you can find out who you’ve seen before, they have a lot of returning artists because the productions are always really good.
It’s not an opera really but I do like the Grease programmes from the Piccadilly Theatre. They’re pink all over except for where it says Grease so it always makes me feel happy every time I look at it. And they’ve got quite big pictures of the cast and most of them are really hot. Especially in my old programme with Ray Quinn in, I’ve so got to go and see him as Aladdin in Peterborough. I’d like to wear my pink shoes but I’d be like 5 inches taller than him if I wore those and I can’t walk in them yet anyway. Speaking of pink shoes, am I really the only Arsenal fan who thinks Nicklas Bendtner’s pink boots are really cool? I want to get some for my boyfriend, he’s a really good footballer but he thinks they’d clash with his white socks.
The Barbican programmes are nice but they’re all the same on the outside so it’s a bit annoying having to look through like 10 different programmes to find the one I want. I think it should have the performers or the titles of the music on the front. But sometimes the programmes are free so I can’t complain about them really. The Chelsea Opera programmes are a little bit cheap-looking but maybe I’m prejudiced because I hate the word Chelsea (I’m BANNING my mate from calling his first daughter Chelsea although even I have to admit it would be a better name than Arsenal). I feel a bit like a traitor even going to see Chelsea Opera so maybe they should consider a name-change. Maybe Kensington Opera, that sounds much more up-market.
The Pimlico Opera programme didn’t look like much: basically just a fairly flimsy bit of card folded in foue and very brief biographies. But it has some brilliant photographs from their production of Falstaff which was one of my highlights of 2008, really funny action shots. I wouldn’t swap those for anything Except for Ray Quinn naked in my Christmas stocking maybe. The Opera Group had a lovely programme for Varjak Paw with lots of colours and pictures which was probably appealing to children but also really beautiful and artistic so the adults would appreciate it too.
British Youth Opera, English Touring Opera and Glyndebourne on Tour have all their operas in one programme but their programmes are still really cheap. Glyndebourne always produces excellent articles, usually two for each opera. The Tour programmes are good value so even if you’re only seeing one opera they’re still worth buying and the articles on the other operas are interesting even if you’re not seeing them. One of their operas which I didn’t see was Hansel and Gretel which I was seeing at the ROH so it was kind of an introduction to that.
With Glyndebourne you probably could split the programme up into 3 different ones but you wouldn’t want to do that for BYO and ETO - especially not with ETO because the singers in 1 opera are quite often covering roles in the other opera and vice-versa so it would be a waste of money really to do it all twice in two programmes. This often happens with BYO too, the covering thing I mean. Also ETO often tries to make a link between the 2 operas so you can look at them together as a pair and that’s easier if they’re in the same programme. The ETO programmes are a bit cheap-looking but they don’t have loads of money and it does still look professional. The biographies have pictures and lots of details of the singers’ repertoire and where they studied and what awards they’ve won which I find really interesting.
BYO is more about introducing you to the singers of the future than teaching you something new about the operas so even the people in the chorus seem to have biographies, the understudies do anyway and the articles tend to be more about putting the operas together than anything else. But I think it’s really exciting hearing about new singers. One thing though, each year they have experienced professional singers coming in and coaching the young singers in their roles. It would be nice to have short biographies of them too as well as their names.
But even though none of the programmes are perfect (and opinions on what a programme should contain probably vary as much as opinions of operas) they’re all worth buying. It’s good to have something to remind you of all the operas you’ve seen. Even the ones you hate – at least you’ll know not to go and see that production/that singer again.
Hey thanks for the review! However, I should say our programmes were £7! Next year, you can buy them up front for £6 or two for ten pounds through the box office. No more booklets. And fabulous images this year.
thanks for your support through the season.
M