Donizetti's Anna Bolena
Opera School Wales 2005
The Opera School Wales 2005
production was of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, premiered
at the Adelina Patti Theatre on February 26, 2005 and then on a
short tour of England and Wales. Several Society members
saw the production at different venues and were all impressed by
the professional approach of the students and the high quality
of the performance with a score ingeniously and imaginatively reduced
by the musical director, Fraser Goulding, for an orchestra of 5
and a chorus of 2. Below is a review of the opera and
comments on the Adelina Patti theatre by Douglas Bennett that appeared
in Newsletter
95.
Tudor Madness in Brecon and Craig-Y-Nos, 5th and
6th March, 2005
by Douglas Bennett
When I first heard that the Donizetti
Society had decided to support the touring production of Anna Bolena by the Opera School of Wales I, along with many other
members, probably thought that the streak of madness that invades some of the
operas of our hero and cast a shadow over his declining years had struck at the
committee of our Society. A long telephone conversation with one of the
organisers, Bridgett Gill, about the production restored faith in our
committee's sanity as well as confidence that the casts (most of the roles,
including the eponymous heroine, had been doubly cast). It also covered the
story of the Patti Theatre, bound inextricably with the falling fortunes of the
diva's home at Craig-Y-Nos Castle in south Wales, and sowed the seed in my mind
that this was not just a 'good cause' but would also give a last chance to view
the little theatre before it enters a risky but essential period of
refurbishment. By luck it turned out that our visit gave the opportunity to
experience most of the cast options because the opera tour was visiting Brecon,
a mere 30 miles away, the night before the second of two Sunday special
performances at Craig-Y-Nos.
The first requirement for this risky
venture (after getting the two sopranos' agreement to the role of Anna) must
have been a workable edition of the opera. At 2 hours 40 minutes (The Sunday
performance cut a tenor aria in Act 2 which reduced this by about 10 minutes)
the performances can be considered fairly complete. The reduced band (violin,
cello, flute, clarinet and keyboard) seems an insane economy until it has been
heard. All the bone and sinews of the music remain (and most of the character).
Some of the muscle and the flesh with all its surface sheen was less apparent,
but the surprise was to find how few of the omitted parts were missed. That was
the achievement of the conductor Fraser Goulding and his able team of soloists
who collectively supported the singers with deft art and sympathetic
flexibility.
Of the two Annas Vania Vatralova Stankov
in Brecon gave the more polished performance whilst Claire Pendleton the
following night displayed more raw emotion, which compromised a smooth vocal
line. Zoe South as Seymour (both nights)
seemed nervous at first but went on to surprise with a confident delivery on
second hearing. Russell Ixer, the first Percy, was a sad loss to the role when
Martin Quinn assumed it at Craig-Y-Nos, but luckily Ixer took over Hervey from
an indisposed Richard Monk (who had been replaced in Brecon by the distinctly
non-student Alan Rankin Crooks). Ixer's smooth high tenor felt ardent yet
secure whilst Quinn adopted the braggadocio more common south of the Alps: he delivered
a rougher wooing with less mellow vocalisation. Henry VIII, Ian Pope (a
singularly inappropriate name!), had the square shape familiar in the Holbein
portrait but delivered a pleasant bass voice that did not share the weight of
his fur-encumbered silhouette. I have a soft spot for the impossibly immature
and improbably voiced role of Smeaton and was rewarded with delightful
renditions from both Hannah Pedley (Brecon) and Amanda Pyke (Craig-Y-Nos).
The Opera School Wales deserves the
fullest praise for attempting the confused world of Tudor politics that
Donizetti's opera inhabits and the daunting heights of its vocal demands. Divas
with more secure reputations have tended with one spectacular exception
(Callas) to leave this Everest of the Bel Canto repertoire to the closing years
of their careers (wisely to judge by the effect early exposure had on the
career of the sadly recently deceased Elena Souliotis). In terms of breathing
life into the sometimes 2-dimensional characters of Italian opera the challenge
to this team of emerging professionals (that did not have the protection of an
existing following of sympathetic fans) might have been all the greater. The
performance they gave demonstrated not just good schooling and preparation but
gave the audience, judging from comments received, enormous and frequently
unexpected pleasure. More than one asked, "Who is this Donizetti? Never
heard of him till tonight!" If some of that reaction came from the
conversion of 'Three Tenors' listeners to fuller appreciation of the music then
the missionary work that we have supported has been vindicated. If in addition
it means that we have helped bring some to people to this music for the first
time then so much the better.
The Patti Theatre itself on the
Sunday proved delightful. The oblong auditorium with semicircular back wall
gave a generous acoustic that allowed the voices to bloom. The stage, although
narrow, is commendably deep and even boasts a modest 'fly tower'. Heating must
have been a nightmare. The first scenes were marred by the noise of a large
heating fan, but thereafter the audience had to suffer in order to better hear
the music. The ladies were provided with rugs for their knees but the men just
had to shiver. The original décor has survived remarkably well but the
devastation of dry rot in the jambs and skirting (the floor has already been
replaced) is there for all to see. A campaign to raise the money for the urgent
refurbishment has started but will has a long way to go.
And finally a few words about the Castle
itself, from which the theatre has been buffered financially but to which it
remains inextricably attached physically. It is run as 'accommodation' and we
stayed there. The management display strange priorities: gold-plated taps but a
breakfast of 'cash'n'carry' economy. But don't let that put you off seeking out
this charming theatre with its operatic resonance and its echoes of a 19th
century Eden that attracts
us just as the rabbit hole tempted Alice.
............................
Those
interested in some of the more recent scholarship on Anna Bolena
may like to read Alexander
Weatherson's article
Anna Bolena
riconosciuta from Newsletter 82.
Opera
School Wales has kindly provided the following pictures from one of
the performances and of the theatre.
|
Henry (Ian Pope) and Jane Seymour
(Zoe South)
(all photographs courtesy of Opera
School Wales)
|
Percy (Russell Ixer) and Anna (Vania Vatralova-Stankov)
|
|
|
Chorus
(Amanda Pyke, Sarahjane King), Percy (Russell Ixer),
Rochefort ( Michael Sinanan), Anna (Vania
Vatralova-Stankov)
|
Amanda Pyke, Vania Vatralova-Stankov, Sarahjane King
|
|
The Opera School Wales (TOSW), founded in 1987,
offers residential courses, masterclasses and other opera education
facilities, mainly for trained singers, in the focussed and evocative
environment of TOSW's permanent base, the Adelina Patti Theatre built for
the prima donna in Craig-y-nos Castle, now in the Brecon Beacons National
Park, where she was to retire.
The School also provides rare and invaluable performance
experience, through professional tours undertaken at the culmination of
the residential courses. Many
'graduates' of The Opera School Wales, who include the 1995 Cardiff Singer
of the World Katerina Karneus, have gone on to sing with major national
companies.
Places on these courses are already heavily subsidised but still present problems for some of the
students. All of them are young professional singers, and many of them
have to take time out from other paid work in order to participate. For this reason, the School
is always
seeking sponsorship or bursary funding for individual singers.
The
Adelina Patti Theatre
The Patti Theatre,
built for
the prima donna in Craig-y-nos Castle, now in the Brecon Beacons National
Park, is
currently entering a new phase with the formation of The Patti Theatre
Preservation Trust, which aims to rescue and restore the Grade I listed
theatre in order to preserve and enhance it for future generations.
The
theatre interior with names of composers round the top
of the walls, Rossini taking pride of place over the
top of the stage. The theatre floor is hinged
at the rear and can be raised and lowered at the front
in order to provide either a level floor for dancing
or a raked floor for the theatre.
|
One of the original splendid backdrops
by Hawes Craven depicting Patti in the role of Semiramide
|
Another example of the backdrops
|
|