{"id":867,"date":"2014-05-29T10:59:45","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T10:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/?p=867"},"modified":"2014-05-29T10:59:45","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T10:59:45","slug":"opera-and-fat-lady-fashions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/2014\/05\/opera-and-fat-lady-fashions.html","title":{"rendered":"Opera and Fat Lady Fashions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cbc20140512_der_rosenkavalier_glyndebourne_13_0\"<\/a>photograph by Bill Cooper<\/a><\/p>\n

Opera has caught the eye (rather than the ear) of the British people recently \u2013 and of the New York Times <\/em>and Time <\/em>Magazine \u2013 because several male colleagues of mine have been damned for their negative comments on the appearance of the mezzo singing the title role in Glyndebourne\u2019s new production of Der Rosenkavalier<\/em>. Some of them have found Tara Erraught\u2019s body-type not to their liking \u2013 though I don\u2019t know of any critic who has not praised her singing. There were charges of “sexism,” and it is true that nobody complained much about Pavarotti’s shape. (But I was present at one performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, when, in the middle of a love duet, he left the soprano singing to an empty stage while he walked off and visibly drank a glass of water in the wings.)<\/p>\n

Shades of the fat lady, whose singing ends the opera – but the sexism charge is all a\u00a0 bit of tabloid hysteria. This is obviously a controversy of some importance, though, as it highlights the fact that opera is lyric theatre<\/em>. Good acting, though perhaps not of paramount significance in opera, is at least the second or third criterion of excellence, following singing, musicality and good diction \u2013 and the appearance of the performer is therefore as subject to critical examination and comment as the other matters.<\/p>\n

It was refreshing to have the debate aired in the national press, radio and TV, though this particular case is a simple one. The Irish-born mezzo was described as \u201cdumpy\u201d and \u201cchubby,\u201d and, as both these mildly disparaging adjectives hint to the careful reader, the problem is nothing that couldn\u2019t be fixed by careful costume design. So the villain here is costume designer Nicky Gillibrand \u2013 or possibly the director Richard Jones briefed his designer to play up the difference between the silhouettes of Ms Erraught\u2019s Octavian\/Mariandel and that of his slim, willowy Marschallin, Kate Royal?<\/p>\n

After the almost perfect orgasmic whoops of the horns in the overture, conductor Robin Ticiatti\u2019s ensemble became a little worrying at the second performance, which I heard. But the band was soon playing gorgeously, and from the same place in the music; and you could concentrate on Paul Steinberg\u2019s set and Mimi Jordan Sherin\u2019s lighting effects for the opening scene, in which the nude Marschallin is showered with gold. (Nobody else seems to have remarked on the evocation of Titian\u2019s Dana\u00eb, though I found the parallel striking.)<\/p>\n

Indeed, Octavian\u2019s tail-coat and Mariandel\u2019s dirndl (or whatever it was) were not flattering to the plumper figure, and perhaps Mr Jones, whose evident take on the opera is that the whole thing is a deception, and that the Marschallin will soon find another toy boy \u2013 probably her pretty black page, Mohammed \u2013 prescribed the discrepancy between the two in order to emphasise the flummery. (I have a lot of time for Mr Jones. When I am made Dictator of Opera, I shall revive his Ring Cycle at Covent Garden \u2013 it remains the best, clearest production I\u2019ve seen, despite its lack of popularity with my colleagues.)<\/p>\n

Apart from the lapse of empathy in the design of Ms Erraught\u2019s costumes, this production is a visual treat \u2013 though Mr Jones\u2019s predilection for gaudy wallpaper tests one\u2019s mettle, if not taste. My only real problem was when the giant fleur-de-lis motif of the wallpaper was repeated in the comically outsized sofa, but with the lily lying crazily on its side.<\/p>\n

Despite what might have been Mr Jones\u2019s intention to – if not trivialise, then downplay the Marschallin\u2019s emotional attachment to Octavian and her sacrifice in renouncing him and freeing him to love Sophie, Kate Royal\u2019s performance at the end of Act 1 is the first that has ever made me weep. Her timbre exactly captures the wistfulness and her acting conveys the ruefulness of her feelings for the boy-lover she\u2019s about to set free.<\/p>\n

The casting of this production is near faultless. Teodora Gheorghiu is transformed from gawky convent schoolgirl to faithful lover, and her voice blends gorgeously in the final trio. Even the usually odious Baron Ochs is made younger and more plausible by Lars Woldt, and he can deliver his low notes with unusual security.<\/p>\n

The production is a fine memorial to the memory of the recently deceased George Christie, to whom it is dedicated, and a very good reason to make the tedious journey to Glyndebourne. We were spared eating a picnic in the predictably English cold and wet weather of a night in late May by dining in one of the Glyndebourne restaurants, Middle Wallop, where the new chef\u2019s crab salad and salmon tartare starters vied for our attention. If only there was a high-speed train connection from Lewes to London Victoria.<\/p>\n

[contextly_auto_sidebar id=”KwiwEmuc6Tsl4zXHBQJnJsaLg7ysnjXD”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

photograph by Bill Cooper Opera has caught the eye (rather than the ear) of the British people recently \u2013 and of the New York Times and Time Magazine \u2013 because several male colleagues of mine have been damned for their negative comments on the appearance of the mezzo singing the title role in Glyndebourne\u2019s new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":872,"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-867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blogroll-2","8":"category-elsewhere","9":"category-uncategorized","10":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/cbc20140512_der_rosenkavalier_glyndebourne_13_0.jpg?fit=512%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-dZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867","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=867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}