Thoughts on the 2024 Edinburgh Festival
Thoughts on the 2024 Edinburgh Festival
As we wind down from yet another Festival, I thought it might be useful to reflect on the way it has gone. The matter of the programmes and marketing still hangs over the proceedings, with some full houses and some rather sparse audiences. You can’t expect to fill every venue, and you wouldn’t want that, because it would mean that everything was super popular, and unchallenging. On the other hand, better marketing would have helped in several events, where the unusual was pushed at the expense of the more familiar, resulting in small turnouts. Combined with the controversial dynamic pricing, being used for the second year, and, as far as one can see, of no real benefit to anyone, punter or management, the impression of a new regime keen on innovation is clear. I would much prefer clearly directed programming, aimed at a core audience, with a clarity of purpose rather than airy visions. The mantra – Rituals that Unite Us – implying that concert going is some sort of common shared experience akin to religion, is, to my mind, frankly unhelpful.
It was great to see more opera this year, but the fact that much the best reviewed operas were concert performances of ‘Cosí fan Tutte’ and ‘Capriccio’ says a lot. I didn’t see ‘Carmen’ or ‘Figaro’, but went to ‘Oedipus Rex’ at the Museum. ‘Oedipus’ in the round, as it were, was a good idea, and I know others found it more satisfactory aurally than I did. There was certainly nothing wrong with the quality of performance, and it may be that my lack of mobility put me at a disadvantage to a greater extent than most. I still think that amplifying the singers would have helped enormously, as any venue where the sound is not directed straight into an auditorium is going to present problems for an audience. Singers hate microphones as a general rule, but they hate not to be properly heard more! Still, I think it’s an idea worth exploring further.
The discussions about reinterpreting great operas is more tricky. As a former opera singer on the international circuit, I have strong views on the modern director’s concept, which seems to say basically that anything goes with plot, music, character as long as it’s new and different. Having appeared in iconic ground-breaking productions like Jonathan Miller’s ‘Rigoletto’ at ENO and Robert Carsen’s amazing ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Aix-en-Provence and Beijing (among many others), I am certainly in no way suggesting we go back to boring traditional stagings with the famous fat lady and no acting. What I do find difficult are productions which go against the music entirely, which play fast and loose with the characters, and which try to place a concept of the work totally at odds with that of the original creative minds.
It is clear from some of the comments attached to our various reviews, and reviews in other media, that productions like that of ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ by the Komische Oper, Berlin, at the Festival Theatre, have attracted a lot of attention, not all negative. I’m sorry now that I didn’t go myself, as I am unable to make direct comparisons, but the fundamental reason I didn’t go was that I have been part of two of the finest European productions of the opera in recent years, at La Monnaie in Brussels and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, singing Doctor Bartolo. Both these productions, by Christof Loy and Sir Richard Eyre, updated the action, dispensed with wigs and crinolines, but stayed true to the revolutionary anti-aristocracy viewpoint of Beaumarchais and Da Ponte, the original playwright and Mozart’s librettist. From what I saw of the Komische Oper production in advance, I was unhappy with the director’s concept, with his changing of the plot and the characters, and his addition of music from other sources. If the entire plot (and remember this is a timeless comedy, not a bit of agitprop) revolves around the teenage Cherubino, with his raging hormones and desperation to be grown up, why replace him with a deaf/mute male and a female Cherubina who sings the role? Later in the opera, a character goes round stabbing people. Why?
The ‘Carmen’ appears to have been less interfered with but seems to have lost all connection with Spain and the Spanish temperament, whereas the music breathes, smells and tastes of the Iberian country. Innovation is good, but there must be a reason for it, derived from the original work. If the concept is saying, I wish this opera had been written differently, I can’t accept that as a reason for reinterpretation. Many directors now are simply seeking the thrill of being booed at the end. Is that what we want the future of this most wonderful of art forms to be?
I was unable to experience the beanbag concerts this year, as I would still be on the floor now, but I heard largely positive feedback. It does preclude people like me and the elderly (note my subtle differentiation!), but on the other hand, we are the normal audience, and we need to get younger folk interested in classical music, so it’s worth persevering with. What we must not do to find a new audience is dumb down, and this is another reason I want the publicity department to be reorganised with individuals who know about music and care about quality. I have written at length elsewhere on this website about the programmes and the poor quality of the information both about the music and the performers, but I will reiterate what I wrote about ‘Capriccio’ in my review. The programmes need to be much more informative, and the artists need to have a much higher profile. Not telling the audience that the excellent Emma Morwood had stepped in at the last minute to sing the Italian Singer in ‘Capriccio’ and also had learned the role in two days, was criminal. Not even mentioning the eight splendid young men who sang the comic servants ensemble towards the end of the opera was shocking. Euan McDonald, George Robarts, Liam McNally, Ferdinand Keller, Matthew Kimble, Smelo Mahlangu, Jonathan Eyres and Phil Gault, we salute you!
In terms of musical excellence, this was one of the finest Festivals of recent years, and it cannot be a coincidence that it is the second year of Nicola Benedetti’s time as Director. Having a practising, world-class musician in charge can only be a good thing, as regards repertoire and contacts in the music world. Several of the concerts I saw were truly spectacular, and even the opening event at Heriot’s School, after a slow start, was quite breath-taking. Reading the reviews of my colleagues at EMR it would seem that many of the events I missed were also top class. I can’t speak for the theatre events, as I did not attend any, but I am sure other colleagues will make up for me. Theatre is not my remit, although, looking at the programme, very little of the theatrical content appealed to me in advance anyway. For me, the EIF is about world-class classical music, and that’s what I saw. I was delighted with my own events in the Fringe, as we got a fantastic audience of over 230 for my opera concert at the New Town Church, with my young protégées, and an excellent audience at St Michael’s Church for my Schumann recital with the wonderful Beth Taylor, and Michał Gajzler. It’s important for me to continue to perform, even though I cannot sustain an operatic career any more, and my mission to show the public how marvellous the new generation of singers is, continues to take up my time and energy. The Fringe, although far too cumbersome, does allow the public to see performances that would struggle to find audiences outwith the Festival period.
What I did miss this year was Early Music. There was virtually no Baroque music in the official Festival, although the Queen’s Hall concert with Jakub Józef Orliński and Pomo d’Oro was spectacular. No pre-baroque music was featured at all, and, considering how many decent churches there are in Edinburgh, that seemed a shame. I know that, historically, the EIF has rarely featured pre-baroque music, but there is a real audience for that nowadays, and I would love to see a little on the schedule. I imagine it’s not in Nicola Benedetti’s musical repertoire list. At least we have the Lammermuir Festival, starting on September 5th to look forward to, with its strong bias toward early music.
Apart from the publicised failings of the programmes and the general poor publicity, there was a problem, reported on this website, about the transfer of shows from other theatres to our own Festival Theatre. This has been a recurring theme over recent years, as the wide nature of the stage and auditorium of the Festival Theatre means that shows which have played successfully in smaller or narrower theatres in Europe, don’t fit well here. Sight lines for split level stages are also difficult, and there were a lot of complaints about people at different seating levels not being able to see all the action or even the surtitles. This has happened enough recently for the planners really to have to take account of such matters long before shows get to the Festival. By next year, Nicola Benedetti’s team will have been in place for three years, and the honeymoon period is over in term of teething problems. Proper planning needs to be done in advance, along with a rethink about publicity and programming.
All in all, however, this has been a memorable Festival, delivered in a time of real danger for the Arts in Scotland. We must remain vigilant to uphold the exacting standards that the Festival has set ever since 1947, and it is absolutely imperative that our political masters understand the life-enhancing value of the arts, and classical music in particular. It’s not fusty, dull, middle-class elitist fare. It’s great art that has stood the test of time, and future generations need to be aware of its wonderful cathartic effect on life and happiness.
I shall forever treasure the sparkling ‘Cosí fan Tutte’, the funny and deeply moving ‘Capriccio,’’ the virtuosic genius of Mahan Esfahani on harpsichord, the monumental Mahler 5 of the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder, and the sublime Bruckner 9 of Sir Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. These are the moments that ‘unite us’, and long may they continue!
