Culcher at the Pictures

 

There was a Royal Opera live cast yesterday of La Traviata aka La Dame aux Camellias , hence the picture grabbed from Gardenia.net. We had two beautiful camellias of our own when we lived n Leeds but couldn't bring them with us as they don't like wind and I don't have any photos of them sadly. I love a nice camellia, me. 

Anyway it was an interesting performance. The music is gorgeous the production was the old Richard Eyre one which has largely stood the test of time, although it did lead me to wonder  where the idea that gypsies always dance on tables came from? I could not fault the singing which was generally excellent. The title role calls for three different voices, or at least three different aspects of the same voice and the singer (the very talented South African Pretty Yende) was very good in two of them, although she lacked the darker dramatic tones ideally needed for Act 2. They may come as she gets older. The baritone in Trav. really can't go wrong given the gorgeous music Verdi wrote for the role, as long as he hits the right notes it's a done deal. Last night's did, although as a last minute stand in he wasn't 100% present in the set and stage choreography. The tenor was the weak link really Nothing wrong with his voice, although he strained a bit with long phrases, but no stage presence at all. It made the performance rather more 'all about Violetta' than I've seen it before and I don't know that I liked it. But this is all nit picking. You'd have to go a long way to find a better performance overall. There is never, can never be, a perfect production of anything.

We were both highly irritated by the little film inserts that these live casts and film casts insist on providing to fill the interval time. Opera by numbers, a patronising presenter - last nights constantly waved her hand up and down to emphasise what she was saying  - and very little insight into anything, not to mention the same tired old 'jokes' aired more than once. No doubt TPTB reckon these give added value, but they brig nothing to the party for us. 

It was really long too, thanks to two intervals of 30 minute and 25 minutes plus a short pause between the two scenes of Act 2. I'd rather have got home half an hour earlier, but I suppose Covent Garden needs the bar revenue. 

Next month's offering  is Swan Lake and we're looking forward  to that.