Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall

Don’t worry, Violetta fans. Violetta will be reviewing a week of the Proms – but she asked especially for the Last Night, so she’ll be reviewing the final eight days, and in the meantime, Fit Crit and I will take a second turn at reviewing a week of the Proms. My first week, Week One, promised a very exciting Proms season, and I haven’t been disappointed.

One of my favourite concerts so far was certainly the concert performance of Fidelio, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, in Prom 50. Or at least, it was billed as Fidelio. What was actually performed was closer to what is usually called Beethoven’s Leonore, one of the early versions of Fidelio, although some sources claim it was known as Fidelio right from the original performance. The overture chosen was Leonora No. 2 – confusingly, the first to be written. Most people seem to prefer Fidelio, but in many ways I prefer the earlier version of the story. Yes, the spoken dialogue (not featured here) is rather unwieldy, but Leonore does give a much more sympathetic introduction to the character of Marzelline (here beguilingly sung by Adriana Kucerova) beginning with her aria rather than her duet with Stephan Rugamer’s pathetically devoted Jaquino.

The German spoken dialogue was replaced by English text, written by the late Edward Said, and pre-recorded by this evening’s excellent Leonore, Waltraud Meier. Said’s text is written from Leonore’s point of view, as she reflects on the time when she dressed as a boy and was pursued by her employer’s amorous daughter, before finally achieving what she came to do: rescuing her husband from death. The dialogue works surprisingly well, as Meier happens to be brilliant at reading spoken English text, but probably not every Leonore could do it, and it does sound rather odd moving from sung German to spoken English. Yes, Meier struggled with some of the higher notes, but she is dressed as a boy. Too many perfect high notes might prove a giveaway. Sir John Tomlinson, of course, was excellent as Rocco.

Another highlight of the week was Prom 53, a celebration of Purcell, Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn featuring the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Sir Roger Norrington and the mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who recently became the first person ever to perform the role of Rosina Il barbere in a wheelchair – and still managed to give one of the most energetic performances I’ve ever seen. The BBC Radio announcer did not reveal whether DiDonato was still suffering from a broken leg, the only possible clue being that DiDonato was described as holding onto Norrington’s hand.

DiDonato sang three arias – the famous ‘Ombra mai fu’ from Serse, definitely a mezzo if not a contralto role, and followed it with a role that’s more usually sung by a soprano – Alcina. Finally came the Scene di Berenice by Handel. DiDonato was also intereviewed and made the interesting point that Handel probably hadn’t known all that many women well, yet many of his female characters have an extraordinary strength that wasn’t typically associated with real women until some years after Handel’s death (although there were, of course, exceptions). Serse, Alcina and Berenice were all beautifully characterised by DiDonato.

So now I’m running out of space, but the other highlights of the week included PCM6, with Joshua Bell playing Schumann’s exciting Phantasiestucke. Prom 52 offered an opportunity to hear singing in Polish, with Helena Juntunen, Monica Groop and Scott Hendricks all sounding great in Szymanowski’s Stabat mater. John Adams Slominsky’s Earbox held its own well when sharing Prom 55 with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 and Strauss’ almost too vivid Symphonica domestica, Prom 57 (which included Stravinsky’s ballet Agon) inwas also particularly enjoyable.

But even the Proms contain disappointments, and probably this season’s disappointment was Michael Nyman’s Prom 54. I’m sure his works would be brilliant as film soundtracks, as they are very atmospheric, but they were a bit too repetitive for me to enjoy them in a concert setting. And whilst his adoptions of Purcell are interesting, they do seem a bit pointless, not to mention cheeky. But there was a time when I thought opera was pointless. And I was wrong about that.

Cunning Little Vixen

primi-divi at hotmail.co.uk