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Serious Opera Leeds
Grand Theatre
05/13/2000 - and 24,26, 30 May 2000
George Frederic Handel, Radamisto
David Walker (Radamisto), Alice Coote (Zenobia), Helen Williams
(Polissena), Emma Bell (Tigrane), Gillian McIlwraith (Fraarte), Michael
John Pearson (Titidate), Bruce Budd (Farasmane)
Harry Bicket (conductor), Tim Hopkins (director)
Opera North Orchestra
Radamisto, written in 1720, was Handel's first conventional opera
seria or "heroic" opera, a high drama on the themes of tyranny, love
and honour that looks forward not only to Rodelina and Giulio
Cesare, but also to La Clemenza did Tito, the . Its action,
based on an episode in Tacitus, focuses on the great emotions of royal
characters -- no magic fountains or comic servants, not even a chorus --
and evolves in the conventional plot-advancing recitative and reflective or
confrontational arias. The characters work over their situations in music
that is almost (mutatis mutandis) Shakespearean in its rhetoric, or,
perhaps, in its obsession with death and pain, like the conversations in
one of Resnais' grimmer films.
The overall structure of the opera is almost obsessively symmetrical: it
begins with Polissena lamenting her husband's Tiritade unfaithfulness and
ends with her raising an army to knock some sense into him; Zenobia, the
object of Tiridate's desire, asks to be killed to resolve the situation --
he is beseiging her husband Radamisto's kingdom -- near the start of the
first act, in the second act when they have escaped from Tiridate and she
actually goes ahead and jumps in a river, and just before Polissena
intervenes at the end. Zenobia and Radamisto each believe the other is
dead, and Tiridate's sidekicks Tirgrane and Fraatre each fall in love with
one of the heroines but are moved to generosity when their love is not
returned. Yet it develops in a stately, moving progression that explores
all the emotional possibilities for a group of honourable people abused by
a tyrant.
Tim Hopkins' new production for Opera North depends on the ability of the
singers to deliver the drama, not on any big extraneous idea, and they
certainly did. The costumes set and lighting evoke a black-and-grey
expressionist Star Wars setting that seems about right in the way it evokes
oppression in a timeless context. (The action is explicitly set long ago
and far away. The effect in the uber-roccoco of the Grand Theatre is rather
strange, but that also seems about right.) Hopkins broke another of Dr
Repertoire's rules and staged the overture with a pantomime of the complete
action that didn't quite get it right. After that, however, the singers
generally stood and delivered in style.
Helen Williams was a passionate Polissena, with a deceptively sweet voice
that reached moments of searing emotion and intensity. The production
brought here on as a warrior queen at the end, which wasn't quite
convincing, but her ability to shame Tiridate into remorse was. Alice Coote
has a rich mezzo that gave Zenobia's coloratura passages more than a touch
of Amastris or Bradamante (a point reinforced by her ladylike
trousers-and-tunic costume). She too was often very moving. Emma Bell and
Gillian McIlwraith were also excellent and stylish in the two real trouser
roles.
Michael John Pearson was a blustery Tiridate, definitely nasty and spot on
musically. David Walker sang in style, often superbly, but he came up hard
against the expressive low passages that Handel wrote for Senesino. Coote,
in contrast, was superb in the Zenobia's similar music, though Walker stood
up well in his duet with her. Bruce Budd sang manfully in the thankless
role of Farasmane, who is there mainly to be threatened with death every
few minutes.
Harry Bicket and the Opera North Orchestra delivered state-of-the-art
Handel playing with a beautiful clarity and sense of texture. Somehow the
instruments matched the voices so well that it was possible to tell which
singer would come in next from the timbre of the introductions. Altogether
a well thought out, well made and beautifully performed production that
could usefully transfer to the ENO.
H.E. Elsom
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