Last night's TV. I had been building up my internal hype all week, reaching nearly fever pitch yesterday, assisted by numerous relevant searches to this site, and an increasing number of posts on rmo. Mother phoned about midday, worried about the apparent lack of interval flagged in the Radio Times. I told her to get a downstairs loo installed before 6.30pm. Sister phoned at 6.31 pm fretting about the spanner in the works to our logistics for our Irish reunion next weekend - I told her it was a bad time to phone.
Jimmy was supposed to be going to some blokes do, but Bobby never got back to him on it. If the weather had looked better I would have proposed going to the Covent Garden Piazza. In the event, it rained there, but not here...!
My initial thoughts were posted elsewhere last night and this morning:
But my opinion of Alagna has increased exponentially - if, for no other reason, the way he flung himself around stage.If I just wanted to hear high 'C's I would go to a recital of...high Cs. But
I want the total experience, which is why I go to opera - or watch it on the
telly. Fortunately, I have my opera-ignorant-novice fiance to explain the
story as we go along...(we make a great team...!).And I just lurved Bryn Terfel's evening gown...
And Angela's blond wigs.
Excellent entertainment for telly - I was surprised that I knew all the
tunes, even though I thought I didn't know the opera. If I were being picky,
I would find lots of minor flaws. But trying to look at it through the eyes
of someone who's tuned into a terrestrial TV programme by chance, or was
wandering through the Piazza, I would say it was a fun spectacle. And we
felt that RA's cartwheel was at least the match of Wayne Rooney's (England
football star).But my fave bit was the ballerinas in tutus - I'm on the wrong NG here,
aren't I?Okay, to be serious, I am not a great fan of Roberto Alagna's voice. I
always think of him as competent - highly competent? - rather than 'doing it
for me'. There wasn't anything in the singing that stood out as a show
stopper, and in the duet with Mephisto at the End of Act 1, it was obvious
even to me, that Bryn was seriously outsinging RA volume wise - unless it
was poor miking.I also thought that BT took a while to warm up - in Act 1 he sounded flat
(even though I don't know the opera - but had read the reviews). Even I
could work out that AG's French was rubbish. She had moments of pure beauty,
and was generally competent throughout. I don't rate her acting, but I do so
like her voice.I've just remembered - Alagna as the old Faust was, to me, absolutely
startling - certainly on TV - how it would have come over in the cheap
seats, I'm not sure. But very very impressive - and with the make up he
actually looked at least, ooh, forty...And I've also just remembered a startling homoerotic interplay between RA
and BT, in IIRC, Act 5.
It was an extravagance of entertainment, an excellent story, some sterling performances, not just from the three principles but also from Simon Keenlyside in particular.
Bryn was marvellous as Mephistopheles. Perhaps a bit of a pantomime baddie - but it worked. I just adored the fact that everytime something was about to happen, he appeared. And I thoroughly enjoyed watching all the different costumes.
Roberto was marvellous - opening as the old Dr Faust was amazing. And I did so like the way he flung himself around stage. I do not agree with what that woman from the Evening Standard said in the interval about him being the 'best acting singer around' but I will concede that he is one of the best. Jimmy said that the silly woman didn't know what she was talking about.
I'm tempted now to get ticket(s) for the Autumn revival - although it will be without Gheorghiu, Alagna, Terfel and Keenlyside.
