The more I see of Britten, the more I like him. He's great! Definitely one of the most significant opera composers of the twentieth century. Who more than he? Okay, Richard Strauss, obviously. Also, Puccini, if we count him as a twentieth-century composer. I dunno. Tosca premiered in January of 1900; is it, therefore, a "twentieth-century opera?" I personally tend to think of Puccini as the last great nineteenth century composer, even though most of his major works were written in the twentieth. Nineteenth century in spirit. Far more of Verdi than of Strauss in Puccini. ANYWAY, if we're being pointlessly strict about it and only counting composers whose works are exclusively twentieth-century, then Britten is number one. Whoo!
This is of course based on the Henry James novella, which I must admit, I have not read. I don't get along well with James. I did, way back when, see a play based on it, but I can't say I remember, well, anything whatsoever about it. Still, I had at least a vague idea of the story in my head: governess gets sent to a country house to care for two orphans (Miles and Flora). She learns that the old valet (Peter Quint) may have been sexually abusing Miles, as well as being involved with the previous governess, (Miss Jessel), but then they both died, so that sorted itself out, I reckon. Except they're back, maybe, in ghost form! Or maybe not, but I feel that the opera significantly takes away from the ambiguity about whether this is all in the governess's head by having both Quint and Jessel sing things when no one else is present. Or maybe not! It is opera, after all. Also, I kept being confused by how close "Peter Quint" is to Peter Quince from A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is also Britten's next opera! Argh!
But hey, whatever. We've got another banger here. I liked this a WHOLE LOT. It really has a genuinely creepy atmosophere to it, and I think that's at least as much down to Britten as it is to James. I'll admit, I definitely liked the first act more: all this unsettling build-up, the children singing nursery rhymes, and this part where Flora's listing the seas of the world and concludes with "Dead Sea"--I mean, you say it like that it doesn't sound like anything, but in practice it's REALLY effective. The second act, where things actually start happening, sort of, was a bit of a let-down, which I suppose is so common in horror fiction that it's hardly worth even noting. Hey, it's all good; it's not like I actually disliked the back half. Helluva thing, helluva thing.
This production updates the action to about the time of the opera's composition, which...fine? Doesn't make much difference to me. I feel like a potential problem here is that Miles is played by a treble, a boy, whereas Flora is a normal soprano role for an adult, which seems like it could cause a weird mismatch. But here, at least, it really works; they're styled and dressed in such a way as to seem more or less the same age. I especially liked Joanna Songi as Flora. And...that is what I have to say about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment