Cav&Pag
Bravo Bacon!
Stanley Opera should save their Bacon because he has certainly rescued them. Since he arrived as director in 2003 Nick Bacon has transformed the group and pointed it onwards and ever upwards.
It would be a mistake to attribute the improvement to single handed heroics but the change in a group admirably amateur but really going nowhere can be traced to his introduction in 2003, what he has done for surviving stalwarts who kept it going and the impressive newcomers he has attracted.
In the current production the popular double bill of Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci (at the Concordia until Saturday) Royal Opera staff singer Richard Lloyd Owen, Nicola Bingham, well known to audiences in the East Midlands and Andrew Robinson all make impressive debuts.
Due to reviewing the show at a rehearsal, I was reminded that principals might wish to conserve their voices for the production but no stinting or protection of essential abilities was evident in a forceful, passionate and dramatic performance of the pieces Bacon himself refers to as opera’s ‘Blood Brothers’ in the equally superb programme – another professional type improvement he has made.
Cav, translated as rustic chivalry, is notable for the realism Mascagni brought in basing it and the principals in a rural setting with which ordinary people could identify.
Lloyd Owen, as Turridu, strolls on stage, jacket hung one handed over a shoulder and a trilby tilted over the eyes like an early day Sinatra – and the rat pack simile is apt. The ex soldier finds his sweetheart has wed but is being two timed by wealthy carter Alfio, portrayed here by Robinson as a Mafioso heavy, so powerful and intimidating that if he says it’s Sunday, that’s what it is.
Dishonour in Sicily can only lead to death but this one act opera tempers the tragedy with some memorable music and the familiar Easter hymn, the procession to church for which Phil Bradley, server at St Mary’s Church, Broughton Astley, adds authenticity in an incense swinging cameo appearance.
Louise Clarke was in fine voice again as Santuzza, despite apparently having a sore throat and Christine Edwards gave a fine performance as Lucia, a role for which she was well cast.
Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci is a play within an opera in which art and life are inseparable and could be alternatively re-titled Nedda the twain shall meet.
Nedda (Bingham) is the wife of Canio, leader of a troupe of strolling players, pursued by the deformed Tonio (a great facially expressive characterisation by Andrew Lamb) but who, when his advances are spurned, shows her spouse in the arms of Silvio (Chris Marlow) and the cuckolded husband swears revenge.
In the players’ production, the mirroring of reality in the plot down to the same trio and the lover she will not name, Canio (or Pagliacci) gets his chance and the contrasting emotions are well captured by Vincenzo Sozzo as the broken hearted clown.
Bravo Stanley Opera, another great chance to see quality opera on our doorstep.
Mitch Irving, Thursday April 7 2005, Hinckley Times
