{"id":755,"date":"2013-06-17T16:55:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-17T16:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp\/2013\/06\/longboroughs_golden_diy_ring.html"},"modified":"2014-01-12T21:37:26","modified_gmt":"2014-01-12T21:37:26","slug":"longboroughs_golden_diy_ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/2013\/06\/longboroughs_golden_diy_ring.html","title":{"rendered":"Longborough’s golden D.I.Y. “Ring”"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a far cry from the Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney Hollywood movie where the two kids say “Let’s put on a show,” but the start of the 2013 Ring Cycle just outside the Cotswold village of Longborough<\/a> has the same defiant D.I.Y. attitude.<\/p>\n

Martin and Lizzie Graham have been thinking about Wagner’s operas for 30 years, and in 1998 they mounted – in a converted hen-house on their farm – their first, but miniaturised,\u00a0Rhinegold<\/i>. Now the shed has become a rural opera house, with all the appropriate<\/p>\n

\n
\"OperaHouseforWeb\"<\/a><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n

theatrical paraphernalia, and (perfectly comfortable) red-plush seats rescued from the renovation of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.<\/p>\n

\n


\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>Now, 15
\nyears on, the Grahams are triumphantly hosting their first complete and full Ring
\ncycles – three of them. What is more, these are the <\/span>only<\/i> complete Ring cycles in Britain in the Wagner bicentenary
\nyear. (They are also celebrating by staging a new production of Puccini’s <\/span>La Boh\u00e8me<\/i> – a Verdi or Britten opera
\nmight have been more appropriate, as it’s also their bicentenary and centenary,
\nrespectively – but there are plenty of both composers’ operas being performed elsewhere
\nthis year.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of course
\nalterations have had to be made.\u00a0 Director
\nAlan Privett and conductor Anthony Negus, though they have used the full score,
\nhave had to simplify the staging, taking it back to its essentials, which is no
\nbad thing. For example, props have been reduced to a non-distracting minimum:
\nno golden apples, no Nibelungen hammering at their anvils; and designer Kjell
\nTorriset’s simple and refined costumes are also a help, rather than a
\nhindrance. Ben Ormerod’s clever lighting therefore does a lot of the dramatic
\nheavy-lifting.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Manager
\nPhilip Head’s orchestra arrangements are the most interesting feature to me.
\nThe pit manages to accommodate a very big band, but with 70, not the 110 players
\nspecified by Wagner. This there are four, not eight double basses, and two
\nharps, rather than Wagner’s extravagant six (plus one offstage). The only brass
\nmissing is the contrabass trombone. In my wonderful seat at the end of row C, I
\nmissed the mighty rumble of the bass instruments that I could feel through my
\nfeet at the last Ring cycle at Covent Garden (conducted by Pappano). But the
\nLongborough pit is partly covered by the stage, only a little less so than the
\ninfamous inferno of the orchestra pit at Bayreuth itself, and has some of the
\nsame magical feeling of the initial E-flat on the cellos coming from nowhere.
\nOn the other hand, from where I sat, the orchestra seemed a bit subdued even in
\nfff<\/i> passages.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Anthony
\nNegus is steeped in Wagner: he worked with the leading British Wagnerian,
\nReginald Goodall, on the near-legendary late-1970s ENO Ring. Apart from a bit
\nof wobbly ensemble in the first minute or so, and though it failed to blast me
\nfrom my seat in the loudest moments, the orchestra was thrilling, as were
\nalmost all the singers. The most remarkable part of the production is that
\nnearly all the performers are British – which would have been unthinkable not
\nvery long ago. As Sir George Christie, formerly the head of Glyndebourne
\nFestival Opera, points out in a generous programme tribute, one of
\nLongborough’s real glories is the “discovery of young singers capable of
\nmeeting Wagner’s daunting demands.”
\nIndeed, in this respect if no other, the Grahams’ madcap enterprise is
\nhugely to the benefit of opera everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In Rhinegold<\/i> I found outstanding the
\nperformances of Alison Kettlewell’s warm Fricka, Mark Le Brocq’s naughty Loge,
\nAnna Burford’s deeply coloured Erda, and Andrew Greenan’s bumbling but
\nmalicious Alberich (the last allowed, justifiably, to take pride of place in
\nthe curtain call). The Rhinedaughters, Gail Pearson, Sara Wallander-Ross and
\nCatherine King were terrific movers as well as lovely to listen to. I expect
\nJason Howard’s Wotan to get even better in Die
\nWalk\u00fcre<\/i>, as I do Julian Close’s Fafner in Siegfried<\/i>. The sole lapse in direction I noted was Howard’s
\nsometimes failing to sing to<\/i> Fricka,
\nwhen the libretto has him directly addressing her.\u00a0 On the whole, the performers pay attention to
\nthe dramatic situation, and direct their attention to the person or group to
\nwhom they are singing; almost The larger Giant’s part of Fasolt was sung
\nmellifluously by Geoffrey Moses, though I wasn’t convinced of his lust for
\nFreia. I sometimes thought I was spotting a new star in Stephen Rooke’s
\nwhite-haired Froh, and was much taken by his acting in the small role.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Special
\nkudos to choreographer Suzanne Firth, as she and the other two actors provided
\ncontinuity as well as a bit of scene-shifting in some very appropriate and
\ngraceful slithering and sliding across the smallish stage.\u00a0 Mr Privett and his associates have slimmed
\ndown Rheingold<\/i> in a wonderfully
\nthoughtful manner – a completely satisfying and polished version of the
\nproduction whose first outing I saw in 2007; and I can scarcely wait to see
\nwhat happens in the next three operas.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a far cry from the Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney Hollywood movie where the two kids say “Let’s put on a show,” but the start of the 2013 Ring Cycle just outside the Cotswold village of Longborough has the same defiant D.I.Y. attitude. Martin and Lizzie Graham have been thinking about Wagner’s operas for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":784,"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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/OperaHouseforWeb-150x150.jpg?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-cb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755","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=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}