I have just got back from this at ENO.
As a side note, it was a good thing I checked my ticket, because I thought it would start at 7 or 7.30; turns it started at 6pm. I was lucky that public transport was all in my favour because I arrived with just ten minutes to spare before it started.
I really really enjoyed it (well, except for the chorus of coughing and talking in the Upper Circle). The absolute highlight was Gerald Finley! No surprise there! And the highlight of his completely excellent performance was Batter My Heart.
If I thought this was good in mp3, and very good on YouTube and excellent in the cinema, I simply do not have the superlatives to describe how it sounded live.
It is a piece of sheer genius, one of those 'time stands still' arias. I find the words quite difficult to understand (I mean the way John Donne wrote them; Gerald's diction is excellent), but I am beginning to understand them.
The music is mesmerising, screechy strings and the syncopated drums, bringing Act I to a glorious climax. And Gerald's voice is gorgeous. Obviously. Gerald's voice is always gorgeous, it has this beautiful lyric quality combined with dramatic expression, and an impressive range of notes. On top of all that he is an amazing actor. Most of the time that he was on stage I kept my binoculars focused on him; especially during this aria, when he embodied the torment of a man struggling with his conscience.
I would be lying if I said the rest of the opera is as good as this aria. It isn't. I still don't think it's a great opera, although it's important and worthwhile. (And I'm not sure how I would feel about anyone else as Robert Oppenheimer). I think it's a bit long. I decided that I would cut out the scenes involving Kitty. I know it's an attempt to portray Oppenheimer as more than just a Scientist, but, actually, I think the work would benefit from a tighter focus just on the project - we know they're all human beings, we can assume that everyone working on it had some sort of private life.
I'm not sure it was the way the role was written, or the singer, but it was the worst part of the opera. I don't think that Sasha Cooke was particularly bad - I have heard her before, in the minor role of Second Priestess in Iphigenie en Tauride - but I don't like her voice and I think her portrayal suffered from an inability to project beyond the stage. The only trouble is, I think if the Kitty bits were cut they would also have to cut the bits with the maid, Pasqualita, which are important because they highlight the Native American connection with nature - and I do very much liek the rich deep contralto tones of Meredith Arwady.
The rest of the cast was strong, definitely one of the very best that ENO has turned out, in my albeit limited experience. And the orchestra was fabulous. I overheard someone saying "That must be the most difficult opera ever written for an orchestra". Of course, that comment immediately provokes me into a desire to counter it, but the way she subsequently talked made me think that she - unlike me - actually knew what she was talking about.
I loved the orchestral writing and I loved the orchestral playing. My favourite bits of the score were those that were most noticeably serialist. Of course, I particularly noticed the percussion; also some nice piccolo work and some muted trombones.
I can't stand it when people make out that opera is just about singing. Obviously, in a way, it's the singing, and the orchestra, that distinguishes it from straight drama. And it's the staging, costumes, scenery, lighting etc that distinguishes it from oratorio, and together with the orchestra, is what distinguishes it from Leider. And this is definitely an orchestra-driven opera.
I was asked yesterday to explain the synopsis, a question which defeated me - it's about people discussing the build up to the testing of the Atomic bomb in Los Alamos. There is no story as such. The libretto is growing on me. Like most people, I was inclined to regard it as the weakest point in the work. Put together from letters and diaries, and excerpts form the Bhagavad Gita and sonnets of John Donne, it's a gallimaufry of words rather than a structured drama.
I am not really sure what to think of the production. I have just remembered that I have been meaning to get the Amsterdam DVD; everyone who has seen both productions prefers the San Francisco/Amsterdam/Chicago version to the New York/London one. I don't find anything to criticise about the production, although I don't have the Amsterdam one to compare with it. But I don't think it's anything special. It has some interesting scenery and some clever effects, but it has to score a major minus point for the fact that I could see an on-stage light being manoeuvred by a stage hand whilst the stage was rotating.
I'm going again in a couple of weeks, and have a seat on Row A of the Stalls, so I shall write more about the production, and, of course, about the incomparable Gerald Finley. I
CAST: Edward Teller Brindley Sherratt; J Robert Oppenheimer Gerald Finley; Robert Wilson Thomas Glenn; Kitty Oppenheimer Sasha Cooke; General Leslie Groves Jonathan Veira; Frank Hubbard Roderick Earle; Captain James Nolan Christopher Gillett; Pasqualita Meredith Arwady Conductor Lawrence Renes; Director Penny Woolcock; Set Designer Julian Crouch; Costume Designer Catherine Zuber; Lighting Designer Brian MacDevitt; Choreographer Andrew Dawson; Sound Designer Mark Grey; Video Design Mark Grimmer & Leo Warner for Fifty-Nine Productions Ltd.
