Stream: Scottish Opera Highlights
Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock
In normal times Scottish Opera tours small scale performances more extensively than any other opera company in the UK. Last year its two Opera Highlights tours reached 34 venues all over Scotland. This autumn’s Opera Highlights was filmed at the Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, and is available online on the Scottish Opera website.
As usual it features an eclectic range of music from Mozart to Sullivan, Verdi to Korngold, hummable hits to rarities. The programme is curated admirably by Derek Clark, Scottish Opera’s Head of Music, who also provides the online notes. There are four young singers -for the first time, all are from Scottish Opera’s Emerging |Artists programme: Scots Catriona Hewitson, soprano, and baritone, Arthur Bruce, mezzo Margo Arsane from France and Chinese tenor Shengzhi Ren. Suzanna Wapshott, Scottish Opera’s Associate Chorus Director and Repetiteur is the Music Director and pianist.
Musically this is a very well sung hour, in which opera lovers will find much to enjoy. The opening Brindisi from ‘La Traviata’ shows Catriona Hewitson and Shengzhi Ren in great voice. Both have won several prizes - Hewitson was a Kathleen Ferrier Prizewinner in 2018 – and make light work of this. Arthur Bruce’s baritone is well up to the challenge of one of Ferrando’s arias from Cosi, and this is followed by a sparkling duet from Arsane and Hewitson from Nicolai’s ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’. Although most of the arias are in their original language (with clear subtitles) the Nicolai is in an English translation. I saw an excellent production of it at Buxton some years ago – also in English – and often wonder why it’s not seen more often in the UK.
There are many good things about the production. The set and costumes are simple but colourful, and the lighting is interesting without being over fussy. However, I have some doubts about the script and aspects of the direction. We’re promised a “wry” take on our current circumstances, and there’s mask-wearing, hand-sanitising and social distancing in the opening off-stage and dressing-room interactions. But the dialogue linking the pieces soon wears thin, (“Isn’t this exciting?” “Being on stage for the first time in ages, and with a live audience too!”) and the singers’ roles as the pretty naïve one, Arsane, the cute boyfriend, Ren, the bossy diva, Hewitson, and the bad boy, Bruce, grate very quickly. A minor issue if it affected only the links between the songs, but the over-acting can spill over into the performance of the arias. For example, Bruce’s Ferrando sounds great but visually there’s a lot of grimacing and posturing to show what a terrible misogynist he is. Hewitson, watching, has to roll her eyes and shake her head in disapproval…
Photo by Colin Hattersley
But the singing is excellent and there’s some wonderful music to come. Ren’s ‘Una Furtiva Lagrima’ is beautifully judged, delivered straight with appropriate feeling. On the basis of his performance in this aria, and in ‘My Heart’s Delight’, Scottish Opera is lucky to have him, and hopefully the next year will give him opportunities to show off his talents on the live stage. The filming here is lovely too, with the lighting echoing the colour of Ren’s velvet jacket.
Arsane has two arias in French which reveal the strength of her mezzo. The ‘Carmen’ is sung well, though with the distraction of some bull-fighter-type gestures and a bit of flamenco foot stamping. (Maybe this is par for the course in Carmen excerpts!) Thankfully the less-well-known aria from Werther is allowed to stand without embellishments, and she makes a persuasive case for it.
The duet from Ponchinelli’s ‘La Gioconda’ is a perfect example of appropriate stage acting to complement the terrific singing. Here the mezzo and the tenor act as if they were in the opera. Despite the sparsely furnished stage and the makeshift costumes, we are taken away to this enchanted island. A real opera highlight!
It’s followed by another rarity, Sullivan’s Roulette Song from ‘The Grand Duke’. In a comic context this time, the singing and dancing come together in an entertaining way. Bruce, perhaps ill-served by his previous stage direction, comes into his own here.
Catriona Hewitson sings well throughout, but her best performance comes near the end of the programme. She’s coped well with her ‘bossy diva’ persona but lays that aside in Mariana’s Lied from Korngold’s ‘Die Tote Stadt’. It’s a gorgeous tune and she absolutely nails it. It sends shivers down the spine and brings more than one tear to the eye! She’s already embarked on her professional career, with performances at Glyndebourne and Garsington under her belt, and shows promise of much more.
That I think is the main thing to take from this Opera Highlights. During the last eight months we’ve become very used to having an archive of opera performances, mainly free, which we can access in a moment. We may not like all the productions we’ve seen, but nevertheless these are fully staged performances with often world-beating singers and orchestras, in packed theatres. So far in the UK, steps towards live performance have been tentative, and most of the work from the opera companies is still happening online. Of course, it doesn’t match up. But if we are to have opera in the future, it’s vital that Scottish Opera keep their staff in work, and, most importantly, continue to find and promote emerging talent. Opera Highlights reassures us that these new recruits to the Emerging Artists programme are well worth hearing now and will have much to offer when live performances start again.
