The Observer - 25.08.2019

The Observer

25.08.19 39

When the

idea of

reworking

the fi lm

fi rst arose,

Mazzoli said

‘absolutely

not’

Sydney Mancasola as God-fearing

Bess, febrile and loving, and

Edinburgh-born baritone Duncan

Rock as strange, handsome Jan.

Wallis Giunta ( Dodo ), Elgan Llŷr

Thomas (Dr Richardson) and Susan

Bullock (Mother) lead the excellent

ensemble. The versatile, revolving

set – by Soutra Gilmour and her

design team – switched nimbly

from church, to hospital, to oil rig

to commercial ship, to seashore.

Reservations may remain about

the story’s ending, a miracle too

far, but not about the value of this

operatic version. The production

now tours worldwide, from Adelaide

to New York.

An empty glade and grassy

hummocks surrounded by trees,

half-illuminated to give a sense of

dawn to twilight anytime: enough

to suggest a Russian summer in the

country. The director Barrie Kosky

has always favoured single sets. He

prefers to create pattern and variety

through his performers. This green

“room”, designed by Rebecca Ringst

with lighting by Franck Evin, was

Kosky’s choice for Tchaikovsky’s

Eugene Onegin. Admired when

fi rst seen at the Komische Oper,

Berlin, in 2016, the production won

rapturous applause in the fi rst of

two performances in Edinburgh.

From the opening notes,

sharply and diligently etched by

the Latvian conductor Ainārs

Rubiķis , idiomatically played by

the Komische Oper orchestra, it

was clear that no detail would be

neglected, musically or dramatically.

Every aspect of this staging was

perceptive, the familiar made

tender and new. The older women’s

gossip at the start, seemingly trivial

but freighted with heartache; the

drunken carelessness that leads

to Lensky’s death; the change

in Onegin from suave egotist to

suffering lover, all were handled

with fi delity. This most emotionally

perfect of operas was in deft hands.

Kosky chose to have the dawn

duel run straight on from the party

scene that provokes it, so delaying

the usual placing of the interval.

This made sense chronologically.

The events are only hours apart,

the tragic folly underlined by this

proximity. Yet musically it caused

a jolt. There seems to be a full stop

as the party ends in shocked chaos,

before the opera darkens. You could

argue the case either way. Cast and

chorus were uniformly impressive.

Aleš Briscein as Lensky, capable of

singing pianissimo with immense

beauty while lying on his back,

and Günter Papendell as Onegin,

combined subtlety and veracity. The

night belonged to the Lithuanian

soprano Asmik Grigorian , who

turned heads as an astonishing

Salome at Salzburg last year and

also sang at the opening night of

this season’s Proms. Innocent,

composed, wretched, dignifi ed,

impassioned, she was the ideal

Tatyana. They come no better.

Scottish Opera), the music is
tonal and lyrical, with lurches
into dissonance and atmospheric
invention. Meredith Monk, Steve
Reich and Britten are touchstones.
Alongside throbbing, pulsating
rhythms, Mazzoli draws from a
rich treasury of alien whir s, clanks,
clicks and bangs to convey both an
abstract, and literal, soundworld:
of the rig, hospital monitors,
Bess’s own, racing heart. The sea is
ever-present, high fl ute or piccolo
conjuring the cry of wheeling gulls
against crashing waves. Plucked
harp, twanging electric guitar
and synthesiser add distinctive
colour. Mazzoli (b 1980 ), whose
achievements include other opera,
as well as songs for the TV series
Mozart in the Jungle , ranges easily
between psalm singing or dance
music, low brass counterpoint or the
queasy strings, now glissando, now
spiky, of a mind in chaos.
A top-class cast is led by the
outstanding American soprano

Fans of William Blake will be fl ocking

to Tate Britain from early September

for an exhibition of the poet and artist.

Many will know that Blake lived from

1800-03 in a cottage in Felpham,

West Sussex, where he

wrote And did those feet

in ancient time, later set

to music as Jerusalem

by Hubert Parry.

Th ere were high

hopes for the cottage

after it was bought

from a local family in

2015 for £500,000 by

a newly established Blake

Cottage Trust. Th e bulk of the

purchase money came from a fund

set up in the will of a multi millionaire,

who made his fortune from concrete.

But four years on, the house, which is

Grade II* listed, is in a state of neglect,

with its thatched roof and rafters

needing urgent repairs.

A grandiose scheme for a major

renovation has so far come to n aught.

Th e trust, chaired by Tim Heath who

also chairs the Blake Society ,

submitted plans 18 months

ago by architects MICA

for the original home to

be restored and a 1950s

extension demolished to

make way for a stylish new

building. Th e new complex

would then hold exhibitions,

educational visits, overnight

stays and regular open days.

Yet the plans will cost millions,

and according to fi nancial

accounts, there is currently next

to no money in the Blake Cottage

Trust. In fact, over the past four years

there have only been two open days

(actually half days) for visitors. Blake

himself was a great visionary. Any

vision of his former home being

turned into a place of pilgrimage

looks bleak. Heath himself did not

respond to questions.

ITV’s News at Ten has just begun

a regular new slot, Earth on the Edge ,

where its correspondents look at

the massive threats from the climate

crisis and the related destruction

to the environment. It began with

reports on deforestation in diff erent

continents. Well done News at Ten,

even if the other night it had a jokey

“And fi nally...“ item on a couple of

kayakers who were nearly

hit by the swell from ice

fl oes calving from a

glacier – but with no

mention of global

heating.

Th at aside, News at

Te n has become my

default nightly news

rather than the BBC’s

ploddy and unadventurous

10pm off ering, which has

anyway been cut back to 25 minutes.

I like the relaxed yet authoritative

anchor Tom Bradby (above) , and

his subtle asides on the news. It all

makes for a lively half hour. And the

show has some excellent home and

foreign correspondents, even if its

political editor, Robert Peston , is

decidedly Marmite.

I was somewhat

surprised to fi nd a

baby of only about

three months

next to me in a

London cinema

while watching

Quentin Tarantino’s

Once Upon a Time

in Hollywood (left).

Possibly the youngest

ever viewer of an 18-certifi cate fi lm?

Anyway, the baby kept quiet for the

nearly three-hour movie, except for

one tiny blip of blubbing. Far better

behaved, in fact, than a couple of

twentysomething blokes near me

who cheered and laughed at the

violently bloody ending.

Richard Brooks

Behind the scenes

The future looks bleak

for the restoration of the

cottage in which Blake

wrote Jerusalem, while

ITV News has the clearest

take on our own futures

Blake’s

Cottage,

c1804-10

(detail),

by William

Blake.

Ambitious

plans to open

the cottage

as a visitor

centre have

stalled.

© THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM

BELOW

‘Wretched, dignifi ed,

impassioned’:

Asmik Grigorian as

Tatyana in Barrie

Kosky’s production

of Eugene Onegin.

Photograph by

Jane Hobson

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