{"id":1181,"date":"2016-07-02T17:41:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-02T17:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/?p=1181"},"modified":"2016-07-02T17:41:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-02T17:41:53","slug":"how-an-operatic-sows-ear-becomes-a-silk-purse-at-wormsley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/2016\/07\/how-an-operatic-sows-ear-becomes-a-silk-purse-at-wormsley.html","title":{"rendered":"How an Operatic Sow’s Ear Becomes a Silk Purse at Wormsley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toby Spence photo credit: Clive Barda<\/p><\/div>\n

Director Tim Albery and conductor Tobias Ringborg\u2019s production of Mozart\u2019s Idomeneo <\/em>for Garsington Opera at Wormsley transforms this operatic sow\u2019s ear into a silk purse. By tightening up the story, cutting down the recitative but adding music from the Anhang<\/em>, the appendix to the published edition, they have restructured the youthful composer\u2019s flabby piece. In a \u201cconversation\u201d in the programme, they go so far as to agree that they have been \u201cenergised by the work\u2019s flaws.\u201d By, for example, including Elettra\u2019s final aria, which is in the Anhang<\/em> but not in the score, they have rounded out the plot and filled in the sketchy outlines of the haughty, naughty woman who is the nearest thing the piece has to a villain. They\u2019ve used other material from it as well, to clarify characters\u2019 motivation, yet they\u2019ve cut fairly ruthlessly in other places, and reduced Idomeneo<\/em> to less than the Wagnerian length the full score would take. Their version is so well-judged that this really ought to become, if not the standard version of this unruly work, at least one to which future directors should have recourse. It\u2019s certainly the best, most enjoyable of the five or six productions I\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s helped at Wormsley by Hannah Clark\u2019s sets \u2013 a pair of washed-up sea containers, one of which is on its side at an angle to the audience \u2013 and is used as a prison and graveyard \u2013 and another right side up \u2013 which opens to its full extent and houses various rooms furnished with Louis-Something chairs, beds, tables and whatever else is needed for any particular scene. Her mixed-period costumes are completely effective. Other elements of the production\u2019s success are Malcolm Rippeth\u2019s striking lighting effects and the nifty footwork of Tim Claydon\u2019s movement direction.<\/p>\n

Mr Ringborg gets an urgent, wholly committed performance from his orchestra of Mozart\u2019s music, which he says \u201cis very old-fashioned in some parts, while in others his music is extremely modern \u2013 more so in some ways than the operas he wrote with Da Ponte.\u201d \u00a0Add to this a vigorously beautiful and modulated performance by the good-sized chorus, and this is a production I\u2019d happily seen again \u2013 and again.<\/p>\n

The plot is familiar. Ilia, the daughter of King Priam, defeated in the Trojan War, has been brought to Crete with other Trojan prisoners. She hates Greeks, but fancies, Idamante, who rules Crete in the absence of his father, the king, Idomeneo. She also fears that Idamante is really in love with Elettra, daughter of the slain Agamemnon.<\/p>\n

The Greek Arbace enters with news that Idomeneo has been shipwrecked and is dead, but this turns out to be false: he has survived by making a deal with Neptune that, in exchange for his survival, he will sacrifice the first living creature he sees \u2013 which is, of course, his own son, Idamante. The rest of the opera tells how he manages (honourably) to fail to carry out his promise. There is a splendid coup de th\u00e9\u00e2tre involving the set; the lovers triumph; Elettra rages; and Idomeneo abdicates in favour of his son. All very tidy, and it does raise real questions about rule utilitarianism and promise-keeping, about the conflicts between love and duty, and state and religion.<\/p>\n

What makes this production so notable is that it is straightforward and never silly. Part of the credit for this belongs to the editing, and the rest to the truly excellent cast, led by tenor Toby Spence in the title role, who acts the piece with the seriousness it merits. A long-time admirer of Mr Spence, ever since his Oxford days, I must be one of the very few members of the Garsington audience who has seen all of him, as he did Britten\u2019s Curlew River<\/em> in Edinburgh in 2005 completely in the buff. The acting at Garsington was first-rate, with full marks going to Louise Alder, a fine Ilia with a precise coloratura, Caitlin Hulcup giving us some lovely mezzo arias (and duets with Ms Alder) in the trouser-role of Idamante and Rebecca von Lipinski a really outstanding, flamboyant and angry Elettra. The minor roles were all well-cast and contributed to making this a grand night for Garsington Opera.<\/p>\n

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Director Tim Albery and conductor Tobias Ringborg\u2019s production of Mozart\u2019s Idomeneo for Garsington Opera at Wormsley transforms this operatic sow\u2019s ear into a silk purse. By tightening up the story, cutting down the recitative but adding music from the Anhang, the appendix to the published edition, they have restructured the youthful composer\u2019s flabby piece. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blogroll-2","7":"category-elsewhere","8":"category-uncategorized","9":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-j3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1182,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181\/revisions\/1182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}