I have just come back from the UK Premiere of Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac and I just loved it. I know that I am suspending critical judgement with that statement; it isn't a great opera, but it was a great performance where it mattered - the title role! I have had a stressful day one way and the other and I got a sudden panic attack that I'd hate the opera, or that I would find Plácido disappointing.
Yeah, right, as if that was going to happen! He was wonderful!
He is fantastic as an actor, the little nuances that were perfectly clear to me despite having lost my binoculars. I could just watch him moving around stage, so elegant so lithe. And then there's the singing! About ten minutes in, he produced this sound that was pure beauty to my ears. And there was much more where that came from. I kept pinching myself to make sure I was not in a dream. Here was this man that I adore, who dominates my CD and DVD collection, who I hear on my mp3 player many times a day, who, with the Cyrano costume...well, the nose, really...was hardly recognisable. But to hear him singing is just a tremendous experience. I've had a number of good, some extremely good singers, in the past few months, and even though I know I am privileged to have heard them, to hear Plácido is something extremely special. People say to me "You should have heard him at his prime", and all I can think is "So, this isn't his prime...?"
I was going to write a review, try and be first on the internet, but I can't get first-to-post now, so I shall hand you over to Dominic who pretty much reflects my thoughts: Cyrano de Bergerac @ Royal Opera House, London: opera review
I shall post a considered review after I attend again on Thursday.
I didn't hang around the Stage Door. There was a security guy there pointing out that as it was first night, there would be a party, which I already assumed, anyway, so I wasn't going to hang around on the off-chance and decided instead to head home and savour the memory of the performance.
I cried a lot. Wonderfully cathartic!
BTW, there were some further key operatic moments in addition to what I spotted at the Dress Rehearsal. There was furniture abuse - when Cyrano angrily struck a table in the bakery with his sword, when Christian kept mentioning the nose. And joy, there was more tenorial falling-to-the-ground, at the end of the balcony scene when Cyrano slumped to the floor in despair at the bottom of the ladder.
Sadly, no chest hair was fondled...
