Latest news with #Tchaikovsky
Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Eugene Onegin review — no frills Tchaikovsky goes straight to the heart
When Dominic Dromgoole, who ran Shakespeare's Globe from 2006 to 2016, was asked to direct Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin for the first time, he knew he didn't want to make it fiddly. And opera these days tends towards the fiddly. Dromgoole, though, tells us in the programme for this excellent touring production by Wild Arts that he 'just wants life to be life, and plays to be plays, and operas to be operas'. He adds: 'It's almost impossible now to go and see a play that is just itself, that hasn't been 'versioned' by somebody or other.' This Onegin succeeds because it is direct, simple, heartfelt. All harder goals to achieve than they sound. It's also something of a bravura exercise in plate-spinning. At this premiere in the barn at Layer Marney Tower in Essex, given as part of the Essex Opera Festival, Orlando Jopling conducted a band of five strings, four winds and one horn, who achieved minor miracles in sustaining Tchaikovsky's plangent lyricism, yet still rose to the boisterous exuberance of the dances. • Read more theatre reviews, guides and interviews The cast multitask too, forming the choruses themselves, getting nifty in the dances or arranging the spartan set with a gravitas that creates atmosphere in a small but meaningful way. Costuming adds its own story: Sion Goronwy's appealing Gremin is a military hero on crutches — unlike the ennui-ridden Onegin, he has actually done something with his life. It all meshes tightly with a story that's about repression; big emotions hemmed in by a small, petty world. 'Contentment is as good as love' is the sad motto disingenuously adopted by Hannah Sandison's excellent Madame Larina, volatile and even flirtatious (the character is often the blowsy, mumsy type). It's one of several good lines from a thoughtful English translation by Siofra Dromgoole (Dominic's daughter), nearly all of which carries straight to the audience, some just a few feet away. Onegin tartly tells Tatyana to 'practise some restraint'. There are moments here that are perhaps too restrained, when you want things to boil as well as simmer. Xavier Hetherington's callow Lensky and Emily Hodkinson's enigmatic Olga don't always punch out. But Dromgoole draws out sometimes agonising intensity from the central couple's doomed entanglement. Gleamingly sung, Galina Averina's Tatyana is at her best by the final scene. Conversely, by that point Timothy Nelson's once haughty Onegin is a wreck who's realised just how badly he's screwed up. That's life. That's opera.★★★★☆165minLayer Marney Tower, Essex to Jun 21; touring to Sep 18, Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert music: A challenging paper with some familiar Irish musicians
Students and teachers were glad to see familiar Irish musicians appear in the listening section of the higher-level music exam but the questions were challenging. Ciara Coleman, a music teacher at the Institute of Education, said the paper rewarded students who had a grip on the key musical themes and features of their set works, while also challenging them to perhaps listen more deeply to certain elements they may not have considered before. 'The questions on set works were nicely spread across the full work in most cases, rather than honing in on one particular section alone,' she said. Lucille O'Mahony, a music student at the Institute of Education and a member of popular Dublin band Bullpen, said that students were happy that question one on the listening paper – which carries the most weight – was on Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. READ MORE 'One of Tchaikovsky or Bach was predicted, and Tchaikovsky is seen as easier, so we were happy with that,' Ms O'Mahony said. Nicole Cooney, ASTI subject representative for music and a teacher at Maryfield College in Drumcondra, said that the higher-level exam was 'lovely'. 'There was a major melody question and a harmony question. Most students will have taken them,' said Ms Cooney. But question three introduced a peculiar twist on an conventional question that might have caught an incautious student, said Ms Coleman. 'In contrast to previous years where students had to identify a specific chord progression, students had to tick a box to indicate where the chord change had occurred in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. 'While this was a good test of listening skills, some students may have attempted to fill the boxes with chords rather than simply ticking the box as required since this would be a more typical task in this context,' she said. The Irish music question tested student knowledge of sean-nós, slip jigs and fusion, with the question on form analysis encouraging students to listen on a deeper level to the music being played. Both Ms Coleman and Ms Cooney said that there was a good choice of topics on the essay question and most students should have been able to find one topic to focus on from their study. 'Interestingly, the unprepared aural skills question had an exclusively Irish focus, with Hozier, The Cranberries, Dermot Kennedy and Cian Ducrot all featured,' Ms Coleman said. Ms O'Mahony said that the unseen questions focused on pop music, some of which was 'pretty bad.' Composition After a short break the students return to the exam centre for the composition paper, which Ms O'Mahony said was 'very nice, with a harmony and melody both in major, and the melody did not require inversions, which made it less complicated.' This featured six questions to choose from, but Ms Coleman said most students would have opted for question one, which featured in a melody in G major and 4/4 time with a relatively straightforward two quaver anacrusis, and question five, which required students to provide backing vocals and a bass line to a given two. 'The challenge in question one was to recognise the unique features embedded in the given opening and to develop these in subsequent phrases. In this case, in addition to the anacrusis, students needed to recognise the use of features such as syncopation, the range of an 11th, and the use of repeated notes, among others,' said Ms Coleman. Overall, Ms Coleman said that students will feel that there was enough novel on this paper that they will have been pushed to adapt. Ordinary On the ordinary level paper, Ms Cooney said that the listening section was quite similar, but with more appropriately-pitched questions. She said that students would be happy with it.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Mazeppa review – Tchaikovsky's blood-thirsty opera is a wild and gruesome ride
David Alden's blood-spattered production of Mazeppa made headlines for English National Opera back in 1984 with its graphic depiction of execution by chainsaw. And, as David Pountney's striking production for Grange Park Opera proves, Tchaikovsky's rarely staged melodic sleeping beauty has lost none of its power to unsettle the stomach while titillating the ear. The work is timely. The Pushkin poem at the opera's heart concerns an 18th-century Ukrainian war hero whose grab for independence wouldn't be realised until 1991. That the grizzled Hetman (a term for an administrative ruler) is also a relentless torturer who murders his latest girlfriend's father is, to a curious extent, neither here nor there. Throughout the opera, we are rooting for him, if not all, then certainly most of the way. Historically, Mazeppa was a regional leader who defied Peter the Great in the hope of freeing his country from the Russian yoke. Tchaikovsky's romantic subplot concerns Mariya, a young woman who leaves her parents for a life of adventure with the charismatic warlord. When her father tries to shop him to the tsar, the old man is promptly handed over to Mazeppa to be killed. After the Hetman is defeated in battle, Mariya duly loses her mind, expiring on the corpse of a faithful childhood friend. Directorially it's presented as very much a play for today, with Francis O'Connor's efficient, movable set and Tim Mitchell's stark lighting creating an all too recognisable world where oligarchs and mercenaries vie for power and violent death is only a heartbeat away. After an oddly sluggish start, Pountney is quickly into his stride. Repurposing the famous hopak (an energetic Ukrainian dance) as an interlude, he even finds a moment of humour as the lovers embark on a crazy choreographed motorcycle ride, stopping off at a motel for a quickie before hitting the road again. The gruesome violence, when it comes, includes the extraction of several teeth, one eyeball and execution by giant jump leads. Grange Park has assembled a fine cast led by David Stout whose ageing Mazeppa is a cross between Yevgeny Prigozhin and the leader of a chapter of the Hells Angels. Joking aside, it's a moving and dramatically crafted performance wedded to a firm baritone with plenty of heft. Rachel Nicholls' lightning-bolt soprano is well suited to the steely but ultimately vulnerable Mariya, the voice only occasionally unsteady towards the top. John Findon offers sterling support as the hapless Andrei and Luciano Batinic brings nobility to Mariya's father Kochubey, singing through mounting layers of blood and gore. Sara Fulgoni is fierce if a trifle squally as his wife. The only reservation is Mark Shanahan's occasionally routine conducting of the English National Opera Orchestra. Tchaikovsky's fervent score deserves more oomph. Mazeppa is at Grange Park Opera, Surrey, until 6 July
Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Mazeppa review — Tchaikovsky meets the Hells Angels
★★★★★The evening began with Wasfi Kani, the irrepressible founder of Grange Park Opera, urging a round of applause for the donors who helped to bankroll the 'Theatre in the Woods'. 'Ten years ago this place was swamp,' she said before pointing out her latest coup (this time against Arts Council England): getting the English National Opera orchestra to play for David Pountney's new production of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa — as well as for the Grange Park Ring cycle starting next year. It was great to have such an experienced outfit in the pit, although few if any of its members will have played this opera since it was last staged at the London Coliseum in 1984, in an infamous production involving a chainsaw. • Read more opera reviews, guides and interviews Pountney's Grange Park production is only mildly gory, although staging an opera about the Ukrainian commander who stood up to the Russian tsar would itself seem a bid to be newsworthy. Unfortunately, in this (Russian) opera, the elderly statesman is fairly unredeemable, running off with the young daughter of a fellow marshal he mercilessly tortures and executes before disastrously turning against the crown. Pountney and the set designer Francis O'Connor wisely steer clear of specific parallels and set their sights elsewhere: on toxic masculinity. Barrels of radioactive waste pop up on a stage dominated by two mobile watchtowers and wooden and glass fixtures. There's no escape from the military-chauvinistic complex. In fact, here Mazeppa (David Stout) heads a leatherclad Hells Angels-like squad, which allows for a very funny sequence where he mounts a motorbike with the good-girl-gone-bad Mariya (Rachel Nicholls) while chorus members rush past with road signs and telegraph poles. Also laughable is the high camp of a funeral for Mariya's innocence in which her childhood possessions are tossed into a burning coffin. • The best classical concerts and opera: our reviews These moments wonderfully offset some performances of extraordinary emotive power. As Mariya's mother, Lyubov, Sara Fulgoni delivered a wrenching plea to her daughter to stop the execution of her father, Kochubey — a role Luciano Batanic carried with utter conviction and actual sobs in his voice. His profound bass was the perfect match for Stout's Mazeppa, who brought more subtlety to the title role with the vulnerability of his upper register. Delivering consistently clarion top notes and lyricism was the tenor John Findon, who sang Mariya's spurned lover Andrei, cutting through orchestra and chorus at full tilt, as they often were, and to exhilarating effect. The conductor Mark Shanahan quickly steadied occasional moments of overexcitement. Nicholls vividly portrayed Mariya's transformations before expertly taming her powerful soprano to give perhaps the best rendition of the opera's closing lullaby we're likely to hear, especially if Mazeppa continues to be unjustly underperformed.280min including dinner intervalTo Jul 6, Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Mazeppa: Tchaikovsky gets a torture-porn makeover
Surrey's finest fizz – courtesy of nearby vineyard Greyfriars – is the usual tipple of choice at Grange Park Opera, but on a thrilling Saturday night it was vodka, poured neat. The drink is a chaser for Mazeppa, who has already imbibed white powder from a plastic bag hidden in an oversized plush teddy bear. The eponymous anti-hero of Tchaikovsky's lesser-known opera (1884) is a motorbike-riding man-child who is obsessed with power, violence and women. He's also fanatical about freeing Ukraine, of which he is hetman – a form of governor – from 'the protection of Warsaw' and 'the repression of Moscow'. Based on Pushkin's narrative poem Poltava, Tchaikovsky's interpretation is more Netflix biopic than rigorous historical source. For Ukrainians, Ivan Mazeppa (1687-1708) is a national treasure – he featured on a hryvnia banknote – and the retrieval of this work from the vaults marks solidarity. Director David Pountney's production eschews hagiography for graphic realism – and this Mazeppa is stronger for it. Act I opens quietly, with a progressive, 1812-like build. There's talk of garlands, some unreciprocated love. So far, so Romantic. Mazeppa (the brilliantly bewigged baritone David Stout) visits his friend, Cossack judge Vasily Kochubey (bass Luciano Batinić) and his daughter Mariya (soprano Rachel Nicholls) to whom he is godfather. He's the type of godparent Hugh Grant describes in the film About A Boy: 'I'll forget her birthdays until her 18th, when I'll take her out and get her drunk and possibly, let's face it, try and shag her'. Mazeppa does that and more, and while Mariya is portrayed as a willing participant (both consent and pleasure in a glorious motorbike scene), her departure from Russia to Ukraine is the catalyst for political crisis. 'The battle lost by Mazeppa is the battle fought today by Zelensky,' writes Philip Bullock, professor of Russian literature and music at the University of Oxford. Battles are bloody, and so is this production. In Act II, we're transported to Mazeppa's dungeon, where Kochubey and his friend Iskra are beaten and waterboarded. Henchmen appear with pliers, a hand-saw, rubber gloves. Fear is in the implication; the detail is in our imagination. A scalpel descends in time for the supper interval. Our return is greeted with a double execution. Amid this bleak torture porn is some blissful singing. Nicholls, now nursing a large pregnancy bolster, is as dazzling as Mazeppa's gold lamé bedding. In Act III, gas-masked cossacks rise from elevated coffins as zombies, contorted like a Francis Bacon painting. They die again to Tchaikovsky's percussive shots, administered with precision by the English National Opera conducted by Mark Shanahan. The subsequent heartfelt duets are a misnomer; Mazeppa ends in Mariya's madness. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the country's then minister of culture Oleksandr Tkachenko called on the UK to boycott Russian composers until the war was over, writing in a British newspaper that 'We're not talking about cancelling Tchaikovsky, but rather about pausing performances of his works'. Grange Park Opera shows that intelligent engagement has a far greater impact. In rep until July 6;
