{"id":1767,"date":"2020-02-22T17:25:33","date_gmt":"2020-02-22T17:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/?p=1767"},"modified":"2020-02-22T17:25:39","modified_gmt":"2020-02-22T17:25:39","slug":"she-was-just-a-millers-daughter-eno-revives-a-middle-period-verdi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/2020\/02\/she-was-just-a-millers-daughter-eno-revives-a-middle-period-verdi.html","title":{"rendered":"She was just a Miller’s daughter: ENO revives a middle-period Verdi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
A scene from Luisa Miller by Giuseppe Verdi @ London Coliseum. An English National Opera production. Directed by Barbora Horakova. Conductor, Alexander Joel.
\u00a9Tristram Kenton <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The English National Opera company is having a tough old\ntime. Its personnel keep changing, its huge building, the London Coliseum is a\nheadache to maintain and fill, and its audience is too old. It has resorted to\ncast list handouts whose reverse patronises newcomers by telling them how to\nbehave at the opera. And its big problem is its bone-head commitment to singing\nin English. With the exception of Benjamin Britten\u2019s and a few other first-rate\nworks with a libretto written in English, this policy confounds the simple\ntruth that the composer\u2019s music and the librettist\u2019s words have been conceived\nand constructed as a single entity. No matter how good the rendering of the\noriginal libretto, the opera just does not sound<\/em> right when performed in\nEnglish translation. Indeed, it is seldom possible to understand the English words\nbeing sung by the performers anyway; and the fact that ENO productions always\nhave English surtitles only goes to prove this. It won\u2019t solve the company\u2019s\nmany difficulties to be honest about this with us, the opera-loving public, but\nit will improve every<\/em> ENO production not originally penned in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         Despite this\nfoolishness, and its need to give the house over to (non-operatic) money-making\nmusicals for a good chunk of the year, the ENO is capable of both daring and\nsuccessful ventures, such as the new Luisa Miller<\/em>, a Verdi rarity last\nstaged in London in 1858. It makes for a splendid, terrifically enjoyable evening\nin the opera house. Prague-born director Barbara Hor\u00e1kov\u00e1, a former singer and prot\u00e9g\u00e9e\nof Calixto Bieto, has given her imagination free rein and commissioned a mostly\nblack and white set and costumes from Andrew Lieberman and Eva-Maria Van Acker,\nso that the look of the production is consistent and fun. Alexander Joel (Billy\u2019s\nhalf-brother) comes to ENO from his more usual European gigs, and conducts the\nENO orchestra with panache, and attention to the needs of the strong cast of\nsingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A scene from Luisa Miller by Giuseppe Verdi \u00a9Tristram Kenton <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

         The story of\nLuisa Miller is a touch too familiar, though the original was Friedrich Schiller\u2019s\nKabale und Liebe<\/em> (\u201cIntrigue and Love\u201d). Salvadore Cammarano (1801-1852),\na chum of Verdi\u2019s, wrote the simplified libretto for the composer\u2019s 15th<\/sup>\nopera, in which Luisa, the daughter of a Tyrolean villager, falls for an\nelegant young man, Carlo, her socio-economic superior, and he adores and wants\nto marry her. He, however, is not Carlo, but Rodolfo, son of Count Walter, the\nregional ruler, and he has achieved his status by usurping and killing his own\ncousin. A devious courtier, Wurm, also desires Luisa, and tries to get his way\nby revealing to her father the suitor\u2019s true identity. Meanwhile, Walter\u2019s widowed\nniece, Frederica, Duchess of Ostheim, has the hots for Rodolfo\/Carlo, and their\nmarriage would result in Walter achieving his own political ambitions. It all\ngoes wrong, exactly as you would expect, and the lovers Luisa and Rodolfo die in\none another\u2019s arms of poison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

         It\u2019s not Tristan\nund Isolde<\/em>, and Verdi\u2019s rum-ti-tum score hasn\u2019t had the benefit of exposure\nto Wagner\u2019s. The boy-meets-and-loses-girl plot isn\u2019t made more palatable by ENO\nHead of Music, Martin Fitzpatrick\u2019s sometimes clunky (and I should argue,\nredundant) English libretto. But the singing and acting is mostly magnificent,\nstarting with Elizabeth Llewellyn\u2019s rich, robust presence in the title role.\nHer range is enormous, with a deep, full chest voice to complement her\nconvincing coloratura passages. As her rival, Frederica, (former Balliol\nphysicist) Christine Rice shows off the power of her chest voice, with baritonal\nlower notes that surprise us, and must frighten the bejesus out of the tenor,\nDavid Junghoon Kim (Rodolfo). He can\u2019t act, but he can certainly sing, and his\nupper range is gorgeous. Bass Solomon Howard, as the crazy bad guy, Wurm, is\nthree times as sexy as the tenor, and moves as beautifully as he sings. The\nother bass part, Count Walter, is sung with appropriate menace by James\nCresswell, leaving Icelandic tenor, Olafur Sigurdarson, to do the plot\u2019s heavy-lifting\nas Miller, the father. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A scene from Luisa Miller by Giuseppe Verdi \u00a9Tristram Kenton <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

         Cammarano\u2019s\nlibretto removes most of the politicking and intrigue, and the director interprets\nwhat remains of the story as the heroine\u2019s growth from childhood to full\nwomanhood. Which is fine, as choreographer James Rosental makes the huge,\nsupplemented ENO chorus plus dancers, amuse us in the jolliest fashion.\nProfound Luisa Miller<\/em> is not; but this production proves that this\nmiddle-period Verdi piece can be revived and made to breathe again in a most\nentertaining way. Bravo, ENO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The English National Opera company is having a tough old time. Its personnel keep changing, its huge building, the London Coliseum is a headache to maintain and fill, and its audience is too old. It has resorted to cast list handouts whose reverse patronises newcomers by telling them how to behave at the opera. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[4670,4669,4673,4679,4676,4680,4675,4672,4674,4681,4677,4678,4671],"class_list":{"0":"post-1767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blogroll-2","7":"category-elsewhere","8":"category-uncategorized","9":"tag-alexander-joel","10":"tag-barbara-horakova","11":"tag-cammarano","12":"tag-christine-rice","13":"tag-coliseum","14":"tag-david-junghoon-kim","15":"tag-elizabeth-llewellyn","16":"tag-eno","17":"tag-luisa-miller","18":"tag-olafur-sigurdarson","19":"tag-schiller","20":"tag-soloman-howard","21":"tag-verdi","22":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-sv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767","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=1767"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1769,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions\/1769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}