Wagner's Other World

Parsifal – The ENO at The London Coliseum

Writer: Richard Wagner

Translator: Richard Stokes

Director: Nikolaus Lehnhoff

Conductor: Mark Wigglesworth

Reviewer: Johnny Fox

The Public Reviews Rating: 

As a first-timer at a Wagner opera (is this ‘losing my Waginity?) I wondered what was the thread that binds his audiences in such strong defence of his work, and whether I’d feel any different afterwards.

The first thing to note is how expert this particular Coliseum audience was at going to the theatre. Sociable until the lights went down then there was not a sound, or a cough, or a sweet wrapper, or a watch bleep … and that made it all the more pleasurable to respond to the breadth and brilliance of one of the most complex, yet accessible, pieces I’d ever seen.

First impression is that it’s different from the clowning and fripperies which so often attend Italian opera – no mistaken identities, bewigged countesses posing as their maids, or page boys jumping from windows … this is weightier and yet somehow also weightless stuff as it seems to spin in the air like the metaphoric meteor which is part of the austere and symbolic set by Raimund Bauer and coolly lit by Duane Schuler. We’re in a cleft of time and space which is beyond the earthly world and its moral judgements. If the Tardis were to appear downstage right, it would be entirely appropriate.

The plot has multiple themes of filial loyalty, knightly chivalry, and custody of a holy relic which could appeal to followers of Lord of the Rings or even Spamalot, but is made easy to follow by both a clear English libretto but also the crystal diction of all the singers. You almost don’t need the surtitles. But it’s the presence of Sir John Tomlinson as the high priest Gurnemanz who acts as a sort of anchorman for the production which really blows you away. His is a fine voice at the absolute peak of his virtuosity, and in one of the longest and most arduous roles in opera he takes you with him every step of his emotional journey, and with a performance of this quality you’re proud and privileged to be at his side.

Then there’s the orchestra – the music has brass and woodwind-rich warmth in the Germanic tradition, and conductor Mark Wigglesworth conjures a mystic, ethereal sound: when you can feel the forest and the hunting horns in the music but see the icily grey scene, the contrast is spine tingling.

With a cast of over a hundred, the scenes with the Knights are cleverly choreographed and the stage feels filled with their numerous but strangely introverted presence.

This really is an other-worldly experience, and one which despite the five hours’ running time just flies by.

written for www.thepublicreviews.com and published 18 Ferbruary 2011

Shaw-fired Success

PUBLICATION DATE 10 OCTOBER 2011
Written for londonist.com




The first surprise in Fiona Shaw’s off-piste production is the all-white revolving maze of a set, peopled by such a troupe of bowing and scraping servantry – alternately linen-folding, bread-baking and boot-polishing – that we could have landed at Downton Abbey. Instead we’re pleasingly detached from time and place in a bravura attempt to modernize the ‘impossible to update’ Marriage of Figaro.

Purists found it distracting, but we suspect most Londonistas would love it as much as the cheeky, punchy libretto by Jeremy Sams. Shaw’s feminist influence tilts the scale heavily in favour of the women characters with Susannah more calculatedly manipulative than typical operatic maids, Barbarina chucking her guts up after bingeing on alcopops, and the Countess packing her Louis Vuittons to leave Almaviva.

John McMurray, ENO’s head of casting, came onstage to announce a substitute Countess in Elizabeth Llewellyn – the British Jamaican soprano who was such a thrilling Mimi in last season’s La Bohème. He should really have taken a bow for not only is she superb, calm and centred whilst the madder characters caper around her, the rest of the principals are outstanding without being household names. Iain Paterson is a robust and barely deferential Figaro while resisting the stentorian overtones of a Bryn Terfel or Thomas Allen, and musically quite brilliantly-matched with Roland Wood’s rather approachable middle-class Almaviva.

The production bowls along till the interval, after which the fourth act could be an anticlimax were it not for the fine renditions of each of the solo arias carrying the evening splendidly to a climax.

This has to be ENO’s ‘genius’ season because it includes so many delicious and brave choices in its repertoire: from Nico Muhly’s edgy exploration of internet sexuality in Two Boys and the harrowing but enthralling rediscovery The Passenger centred in Auschwitz, to a chocolate box of delights in the colourful Elixir of Love and now courting controversy by daring to deconstruct such a traditional and beloved warhorse as Figaro. With standby tickets from £10, this is a London institution to be proud of, and to support. Go.