Royal Conservatoire of Scotland: Cendrillon
RCS New Athenaeum Theatre, Glasgow - 31/01/24
Nicholas Kok, conductor | Nikki Martin, soprano | Daniel Gray Bell, tenor | Flora Birkbeck, mezzo-soprano | Pawel Piotrowski, baritone | Rosie Lavery, soprano | Charlotte Bateman, mezzo-soprano | Audrey Tsang, soprano | Joshua McCullough, baritone | Christopher Warrington, tenor | Chi Zhang, baritone | Shaojun Feng, bass-baritone
Living in Scotland’s Central Belt brings many boons, few more intense than enjoying operatic productions featuring emerging talent at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. The latest of these, Massenet’s ‘Cendrillon’, a retelling of the Cinderella story, afforded a welcome opportunity for (I’m ashamed to reveal) a first hearing for me of a rarely-performed gem of the repertoire, while savouring another snapshot in the artistic development of the performers whose work I have been following for a year and a half. The RCS New Athenaeum Theatre was the venue for all four performances, of which I caught the third on 31stJanuary. Most of the vocal principals were second year Opera Masters students at the RCS. Though the orchestral parts were a reduction by Tony Burke, it was still a good-sized chamber orchestra of about 40 students, conducted by gifted, versatile maestro Nicholas Kok. The production was directed by Emma Jenkins, designed by Janis Hart and lit by Davy Cunningham. The action was set in a once-grand-but-now-faded Hotel Royale, restored to former glory by fairy magic. The ingenious single set was subtly transformable from posh apartment to royal suite to ballroom, while a front gauze and lighting allowed the illusion of outdoor scenes to be realised. The opera, equally rich in elements of comedy, tragi-comic melodrama and high romance, was sung in French with English surtitles.
The 25-strong chorus (of servants, spirits, ministers, doctors and courtiers) had been vocally trained by Mark Sandon, while a huge proportion of the rich visual comedy was attributable to the Tatiesque vision of Movement Director, Jack Webb. The hilarious spectacle of a rectangular formation of Madame de la Haltière’s uniformed servants shuffling obsequiously en masse and in reverse through a doorway was an unforgettable spectacle that had me shaking with mirth then and again now as I type. The orchestra and chorus delivered Massenet’s sumptuous scoring with flawless choreography in equal measure. Superb.
The title role of Lucette, nicknamed Cendrillon, is huge, with a host of demanding arias and also duets with her father, the Prince and the Fairy Godmother. Soprano Nikki Martin, whose enchanting portrayal of the fey gentle Monica in Menotti’s ‘The Medium’, I praised in November rose to the challenge. Steadfast in her affection for the father, whose second marriage has plunged her into a life of servitude in the household of Madame (she even wears servant’s livery), and bullied by Madame’s daughters, she remains unresentful. Visually transformed by the Fairy Godmother to the mysterious l’Inconnue, she captivates the Prince but must flee at midnight. Convinced that she can only bring unhappiness to her beloved father, she runs away in despair to the woods where the Fairy Godmother arranges another meeting with the Prince and they declare their love and fall asleep in each other’s arms. When found alone and cold by her father the next day, she is brought home to be nursed back to health, convinced that her recollections of the Prince are just a dream. A final intervention by the Fairy Godmother with the matching glass slipper seals the happy ending. Nikki delivered a full and complex characterisation with moments of melancholy, self-doubt, longing, enchantment, determination, forgiveness, joy and elation, all with excellent French diction and unwavering fidelity to Massenet’s captivating but demanding score. Unforgettable.
Traditionally a trouser role for falcon or soprano de sentiment, a uniquely French dark soubrette-like tessitura, the Prince was more dramatically satisfyingly played by tenor, Daniel Gray Bell, transposed down. The role has many challenges. At the start of the opera, the Prince is melancholy and beset by ennui (not without comic elements – we saw him with the controller of a games console in his hands). It is difficult to play a lethargic, disaffected character whilst simultaneously delivering a vocal line with commitment, and I felt that the excellence of Daniel’s acting triumphed at the expense of vocal conviction in Act II, harming the emotional impact of his Act II aria ‘Coeur sans amour’, but wholly remedied by the duets with Nikki later in the opera. Hitherto, Daniel had been ‘seen but not heard’ by me in the tragic mute role of Toby in Menotti’s ‘The Medium’. By Acts III and IV, his clear tenor voice carried the romantic lead role with conviction and won me over.
Mezzo-soprano Flora Birkbeck, whose dramatic range, stage presence and vocal power in the twin lead roles of Maddy in ‘Three Decembers’ and Baba in ‘The Medium’, in the November Double Bill, had wowed me, was dynamite as the haughty, overbearing stepmother Madame de la Haltière, feared and hated by the servants, yet played with more than mere melodrama. The wealth of opportunities for comedy, not to mention glamour, was exploited, fully supported by the design of the set, the costume and the movement. Her pride in her ghastly daughters notwithstanding, her Act III aria listing her illustrious aristocratic lineage (blissfully unaware of the “rogues’ gallery” subtext) was a comic highlight for me, matched at the end of the opera by her haste to claim Lucette as her daughter, when it is clear she is to be married to the Prince. A fabulous well-rounded performance.
Polish baritone Pawel Piotrowski’s growth as an artist has been a joy to follow, from a cameo role as a disapproving priest in Cui’s ‘A Feast in Time of Plague’ nearly a year ago to a movingly deep characterisation of Charlie in Heggie’s ‘Three Decembers’ in November. His tone is warm and expressive over the whole baritone range; his projection and diction are flawless. The role of Pandolfe, Lucette’s father is a gift to baritones and he gave it everything in return. At the beginning of the opera, he is rueful of his rash second marriage and riddled with guilt at the misfortune that this has visited upon his beloved Lucette. He resolves to be more assertive, a resolve which tragicomically crumbles on the entry of ‘Madame’. In Acts I and II, the role is mostly comic and in movement, facial expression and vocal lightness, he exploited this to the delight of the audience. But in Act III, the aftermath of the ball, when Madame and her daughters describe, l’Inconnue as ‘the impudent intruder’, seeing though not comprehending Lucette’s distress, the worm finally turns; he dismisses them and comforts her, expressing his regret for her plight, and they resolve to escape together from this miserable household (she then actually runs away alone to the forest). Act IV begins with him watching over her sleeping, having rescued her from the forest and nursed her back to health. When she wakes there is another tender duet. It seems to me that Massenet’s music for the father/daughter relationship projects a stronger love than that of Lucette and Prince Charming. At any rate, I felt that Nikki’s duets with Pawel were more perfectly blended and infused with greater tenderness than those with Daniel, and ultimately more memorable. A very fine performance from Pawel.
Madame’s daughters, Noémie and Dorothée, offer scope for two richly comic roles, and the design and the direction supported this fully with a wealth of visual hilarity. The dresses that they select for the ball are perfectly hideous. They move with unjustifiably self-confident awkwardness. The music and words support a comic delivery. Scottish soprano Rosie Lavery, whose portrayal of Bea in ‘Three Decembers’ moved me to write “captivatingly expressive and emotionally charged, the transformation to a state of self-knowledge and self-realisation both compelling and credible – a soprano to watch”, was as captivating in a comic role, both dramatically and vocally. Mezzo-soprano Charlotte Bateman, who had portrayed a vulnerable bereaved mother Mrs Nolan in ‘The Medium’, matched Rosie’s comic delivery perfectly. A class act.
La Fée, the Fairy Godmother, is a vocally demanding role for a light coloratura soprano, with lots of trills and vocalise arpeggios at the top of the range, often in harmony and descant ornamentation of Cendrillon’s line. The aural effect is magical and Hong Kong soprano Audrey Tsang realised it magically, supported by the visual design elements, first appearing in the backlit ‘mirror’ over the fireplace in Madame’s apartment, dressed in white with a huge glistening white wig. My most lasting aural memory of the performance is Nikki’s duets with Audrey, followed closely by those with Pawel.
There are a number of dramatically minor though musically significant roles, and all were served ably. Chinese baritone Chi Zhang played Le Surintendant des Plaisirs, while his compatriot, bass-baritone Shaojun Feng, played Le Premier Ministre. Canada-born tenor Christopher Warrington was Le Doyen de la Faculté and, last but not least (and in fact tallest by a long chalk), Aberdonian baritone Joshua McCullough was a majestic yet deliciously comic stage presence as Le Roi.
In conclusion, this was a magnificent production with excellence in the visual design elements matched by virtuosity in musical performance and stagecraft. I find it bewildering that an opera bearing so rich a fusion of comedic, romantic and fantastic elements should be virtually unknown. Full marks and a very big thank you to RCS for bringing it to us, hopefully starting a long overdue revival.