I went to this last week and really enjoyed Acts I and II. However, I had to leave early because of a call of nature. I accept that I misjudged - during a fairly intense afternoon at work I had two cups of tea, and during the fifteen minutes interval (advertised as twenty) I chose to have a drink and a fag rather than tackle all those stairs and spend the entire time queuing for the Ladies.
I don't know why the Barbican chose to run Acts II and III together. I see a similar complaint made by Handel expert Sue in respect of the recent Giulio Cesare in Lausanne. I recognise that the Barbican has to balance start and finish time for those coming from work and those needing to catch trains back to The Sticks, but the programme said it was scheduled to finish at 10, a full half hour before the Royal Opera House's habitual finish, so it wouldn't have hurt to have put in an interval between Acts II and III. I think this is a classic example of 'designed by men, used by women', timings decided by men who seem to have no idea about the queues that are typical in women's loos at theatrical etc events (I once went to a play with a then boyfriend who exclaimed 'what have you been doing all this time, the interval's nearly over').
When I go to an opera, I expect to be able to sit back, relax and concentrate on the music. That didn't happen, which was areal shame, because in respect of Acts I and II it was very enjoyable with a good cast and excellent orchestral playing by the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood.
The cast was:
Flavio: Iestyn Davies
Guido: Robin Blaze
Emilia: Karina Gauvin
Vitige: Maite Beaumont
Teodata: Renata Pokupic
Ugone: James Gilchrist
Lotario: James Rutherford
No weak links; the stand outs were Iestyn Davies who risks becoming my favourite countertenor, if such a notion wasn't oxymoronic, and Maite Beaumont.
Although it was a concert version, and they were in concert dress, they did inject some acting into it: moving around stage, and exiting and entrancing.There were some nice comedy touches. The oboist stepped forward to hand Flavio an envelope, which he opened. He took out a letter, which was the Governor of Britain tendering his resignation. He went into the envelope again and extracted a union flag, the sort given out for free at Classic Spectacular etc. He then handed it to Ugone, appointing him the new governor of Britain. Ugone's reaction of distaste was delightfully hammed, to the general amusement of the orchestra.
Sorry I can't bring you a more profound review, but it's difficult based on just two acts. Sometimes I choose to walk because the performance, or work, is poor, or not to my taste. So I was angry and upset that I had to leave, and could not re-enter, simply because the Barbican had moronically decided to run two acts together, making a second half of one and three quarter hours.
