Just when one might have thought it safe for Hades to return to business as usual, here comes another operatic Orpheus wandering its depths in search of his missing wife.
Unlike Opera North’s previous venture, the fascinating and rather wonderful collaboration with South Asian Arts, where the exoticisms of Monteverdi and Indian classical music blossomed in cross-fertilisation, this is a minimalist staging of Gluck’s famous, more-straightforward 1762 Vienna version. Huddersfield has already experienced it in a concert setting, but Leeds Grand Theatre offers both lighting and costumes as enhancing add-ons. (Editor’s note: our images are of the performance in Huddersfield.)
There is next to nothing by way of props: an abiding, central raised platform, with a temporary smaller one to one side for an Act II harpist, and two black backdrops, one star-studded, accommodating the mortal world’s travails, the other quite plain for the dark domain of the Underworld.
Conductor Antony Hermus plunges us into Gluck’s busy Overture with the utmost gusto, the orchestra finding plenty of light and shade despite the brisk tempo. This remains a notable feature of their playing throughout the evening, both in the instrumental scene setting and when accompanying the vocal arias. A refined radiance graces the slower numbers, plenty of time given for singers to find their necessary expression, with plenty of telling orchestral detailing distilled from Gluck’s masterful score. The opening to the second half, a curtailed version of the familiar “Dance Of The Blessed Spirits”, is beautifully played.
Polly Leech (Leeds performance) is a creamy-toned Orfeo, taking us across an emotional spectrum, spanning the grieving depths of despair at Euridice’s passing to the rapturous, yet guarded joy of their reunion. What should be unfettered ecstasy is tempered by the godly decree that, until they have returned to the land of the living, Orfeo must not look at his beloved, nor offer explanation that to do so would mean losing her forever. Understandably, Euridice is more than perplexed at being greeted without hugs and kisses, and searches in vain for an explanation for Orfeo’s apparent coldness and indifference. It is testament as to how successfully the production inflames the tension between the two that, when Orfeo’s disciplined resistance snaps and he turns to face her, there is an audible gasp from a knowing audience. The famous “Che Faro Senza Euridice?” (“What Is Life To Me Without Thee?”) is delivered without recourse to too much over-romanticising, but pulls tellingly at the heart strings, nevertheless. This is Polly Leech’s debut for the Company, but it is to be hoped that her return is not far distant.
Fflur Wyn, as Euridice, her long-awaited but brief appearance finally fulfilled by Act II, similarly applies fine acting and a luminous voice to transform the drama’s mood from euphoria to bewildered rejection. By the end of her long solo, she claims to prefer certain death to a life of suffering indifference … until it comes once more upon her.
The one-dimensional character of Amore, all reason and mile-wide smile, is far harder to make much of, but Daisy Brown sings sweetly and honestly, far less scheming and fickle than the general Greek goddess.
The chorus is gloriously-voiced, the composer’s dramatic musical sense aglow at using it for scene setting and adding atmospheric commentary as the storyline unfolds. Above anything else, their pivotal and vital role shows how opera changed in the century and a half between Monteverdi and Gluck.
Sung in Italian, with English titles. The redoubtable Alice Coote takes the title role in future dates of the Leeds run and subsequent tour.
Further performances: Friday 28 October at 7pm, Leeds Grand Theatre, then touring Nottingham, Newcastle and Salford Quays until 18 November.
Cover photograph: Alice Coote, Fflur Wyn and Daisy Brown. All photography by Justin Slee.
