Canaletto and Custard
Il Tabarro
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Giuseppe Adami
Rita
by Gaetano Donizetti, libretto by Gustave Vaëz
Instant Opera at Normansfield Theatre, Teddington until 13th October
Review by Salieri
This production of these two seldom performed operas, completely different from each other, provided a fascinating evening’s entertainment. Il Tabarro by Puccini, first produced in 1918 is a typical melodrama with the customary corpse at its ending, whilst Donizetti’s Rita is a wonderfully funny romp, with a sprightly and entertaining score.
Read more…A Twist of the Knife
Turn of the Screw
by Benjamin Britten, libretto by Myfanwy Piper
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 31st October
Review by Patrick Shorrock
This magnificent performance shows that English National Opera are still very much firing on all cylinders. It may require an orchestra of only thirteen players, but the varied colours and sheer tension conjured up by Duncan Ward and the ENO orchestra don’t feel in any way small scale, even in the vast space of the Coliseum. Every turn of the musical screw and twist of the dramatic knife is beautifully realised, arising naturally from the music rather than being imposed on the score. The audience, including plenty of under-21s, is completely sucked into the Britten’s vortex of operatic tension. There is that sense of a whole house completely enthralled that only comes with the finest performances.
Read more…Cry for Everyone
Evita
by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice
HLO Musical Company at the Hampton Hill Theatre until 12th October
Review by Heather Moulson
There is a strong opening to this ambitious rock opera. We are in a Buenos Aires cinema in July 1952. The cinema audience is authentically dressed in the fashion of that era. When the film is interrupted with news of the death of María Eva Duarte de Perón, there is a sense of real loss and mourning for Argentina’s First Lady, universally known simply as Evita.
The coffin is brought on, and it is the turn of Che, the cynical narrator, to reveal himself. Appropriately it is Argentinian actor Sergio Altamirano who saunters onto the stage in the role. A dark and witty force with a strong voice, he strikes a monumental figure against the black coffin.
Read more…Love and War
Birdsong
by Sebastian Faulk, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff
Original Theatre and JAS Theatricals at Richmond Theatre until 5th October, then on tour until 22nd February 2025
Review by Andrew Lawston
Tonight, Richmond Theatre goes back in time over one hundred years, landing in a period that everyone thinks they know very well. Based on Sebastian Faulk’s modern classic Birdsong, this new production of Rachel Wagstaff’s adaptation evokes France from 1910 to 1918 perfectly, and all performed against a single set of wooden slats, which is a staggering achievement given the action takes in everything from quiet country houses in Amiens to the Battle of the Somme. Thanks to pacy direction from Alastair Whatley, this three hour production whistles past in what feels like no time at all.
Retaining just enough of the novel’s contemporary plot thread to bookend the story, the play opens with a young man searching for a particular name in the war cemeteries of northern France. This provides some ominous foreshadowing to the adventures of Stephen Wraysford (James Esler, wonderfully dynamic throughout) as he visits René Azaire’s factory in 1910 Amiens, to compile a report for his guardian who wishes to buy it. The factory’s beleaguered workers are facing further hardship in pay cuts, and there are stirrings of unrest.
Read more…All the Buzz
Humble Boy
by Charlotte Jones
Teddington Theatre Club at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre until 5th October
Review by Steve Mackrell
Ayckbourn on steroids. That’s the first and overwhelming impression that comes to mind after taking a large dose of Humble Boy, written by Charlotte Jones, and first performed at the National Theatre in 2001.
Presented by Teddington Theatre Club, in the intimate space of the studio in Hampton Hill Theatre, the play sparkles with sharp and witty comedy. We are soon introduced to a variety of familiar characters pottering around a pleasant contemporary garden somewhere in middle England. Into the mix is placed a matriarchal mother, her troubled son, a boorish self-made businessman, his daughter and even, classic Ayckbourn, an eccentric gardener.
Read more…Touching Tribute
Flare Path
by Terence Rattigan
Putney Theatre Company at The Putney Arts Theatre until 28th September
Review by Heather Moulson
Despite being an admirer of Rattigan’s work, Flare Path was for me an undiscovered gem. Based on the playwright’s own experience in World War Two as a tail gunner in RAF Coastal Command, it was a story recounted in clear detail.
Set in a Lincolnshire hotel foyer in 1941, there are authentic radio broadcasts and sounds of low flying planes, as we encounter Doris, Countess Skriczevinsky leafing through a magazine and smoking a cigarette. (Incidentally, we were told before the play that these were tobacco-free cigarettes which would probably explain why no-one inhaled.)
Read more…Ghost of a Chance
Blithe Spirit
by Noël Coward
The Questors at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 5th October
Review by Polly Davies
A nicely polished performance of Noël Coward’s ethereal comedy made for an enjoyable evening in the Judi Dench Playhouse. Under Frances McInally’s direction the wit was sparkling, the ghosts were ghostly, the speech was suitably clipped, the set and costumes were perfectly in period and the special effects were marvellous. And being greeted with the news that special cocktails were being served that night added to the 30’s feel of the play. Such a shame I was driving.
Although it is not mentioned in the notes I really believe that Noël Coward must have attended such an evening as he depicts in Blithe Spirit, and been supremely unimpressed by the very idea of psychic happenings.
Read more…Judge Not
Suor Angelica
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 27th September
Review by Susan Furnell
Puccini wrote Suor Angelica in 1918, eight years before his death, and around twenty years after his famous lyrical verismo operas like La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madam Butterfly (1904). This late work is an ocean apart in subject matter, structure, harmony, tonality, and style. Puccini was responding to the musical changes of the early 20th Century, where Debussy and Stravinsky were challenging harmonic structures, Schoenberg and Berg were eliminating them, and Wagner was developing the leitmotiv into a complex psychological tool.
The subject matter is not a love story, but one woman’s psychological torment. Angelica, sent to a stark convent to atone for having a child out of wedlock, holds on to the thought of her son, taken from her at birth, as her sole reason for living. When, after seven years, her aunt arrives, demanding she give up her inheritance and coldly tells her that her son has died, Angelica’s purpose is extinguished. In despair, she takes poison but, realizing she will be eternally damned, is granted a vision of her son and the Virgin Mary, which brings her peace.
Read more…Bohemian Blues
La Bohème
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on a novel by Henri Murger
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 19th October
Review by Susan Furnell
La Bohème has always been close to the heart. From my first experience of shedding tears at an opera at a Chicago Lyric Opera production in the 1980s, to being swept away by the grandeur of Zeffirelli’s sets at The Met, Puccini always creates magic and emotional intensity for me. So when I finally decided to see the Jonathan Miller production, noted for its modern setting, I was intrigued to find out how the production would work for this timeless love story.
My expectations have always been high for a Jonathan Miller production of any opera. However, I initially had some reservations about going to the first run of his La Bohème in 2009 and its subsequent revivals after reading reviews describing its “modernity” and “hyper-realism,” and some mentions of “clumsy” translation which I assumed to mean “harsh” and “jarring”. However, curiosity finally won me over as it is now on its fifth run and must have something special to be brought back again and again. What would I find?
Read more…Faith, Hope, Love
Never Let Me Go
by Suzanne Heathcote, after the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro
Rose Original Production with Bristol Old Vic, Malvern Theatres and Royal & Derngate at the Rose Theatre, Kingston until 12th October, then on tour until 30th November
Review by Mark Aspen
Faith, hope and love, St Paul’s hierarchy of the strength and longevity of emotions, is subtly and beautifully illustrated in Suzanne Heathcote’s adaptation of Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s all-absorbing story of a society that teeters on a line between morality and expediency, between humanity and pragmatism.
The finely chiselled world premiere production of Never Let Me Go is a totally engaging memory story, a future history of what could be. It is that could-be that makes it so thought-provoking, compelling and chilling. Yet it is more chilling in the vehicle of director Christopher Haydon’s clean simplicity of story-telling.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 