The three ‘sustainable’ operas at Leeds Grand Theatre during the autumn were produced following the advice provided in the Theatre Green Book, an initiative by the whole of theatre.
All sets, props and costumes were sourced from previous productions and current stock, or were acquired second-hand. Donated items included an ancient caravan, which seems to have had something to do with The Myrtle Tavern in Meanwood, which appeared on stage a few times.
According to the official publicity for the Book: “If theatre is to be part of the most vital conversation humanity faces, then it has to change its practice”.
The three operas coming our way in the spring are almost all revived versions of previous successes, with new casts, so not too many changes in sets and props will be needed, I imagine.
Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera Albert Herring, which opens on 12 January in the round in the Howard Assembly Room, is being promoted as “quintessentially English”, but what does that mean? Certain qualifications should be considered. The libretto by Eric Crozier is an adaptation of Le Rosier de Madame Husson, a nineteenth-century novella by Guy de Maupassant which is quintessentially French, in which the titular madame tries to promote chastity in her provincial village by finding a rosière, or Rose Queen, a girl who has not been involved in any hanky-panky.
When she is unable to find one, she crowns a boy regarded as the village idiot as rosier, or Rose King. He becomes Albert Herring in this opera, a timid, tongue-tied mooncalf selected as King of the May by a local committee in the small town of Loxford because of his undoubted virginity. He helps his domineering mother run the local greengrocer’s and is far from adventurous – until he drinks a glass of lemonade secretly spiked with rum. The following comic events take place amongst a bunch of villagers who can switch from comic harmlessness to menace in an instant, all of them interesting individuals, not caricatures. Loxford is a dated village from the early twentieth century, when there was more community spirit, and when schools, post offices and pubs were still open; a rural idyll in fact, filled with Britten’s witty music, which is full of quotes from other composers.
Opening on 2 February, Mozart’s Così fan tutte is a constant, always on the repertoire. The action is set off by Don Alfonso, a philosopher who wants to prove that love is not all it seems. He challenges two of his friends – Ferrando and Guglielmo – to a bet, urging them to test the faithfulness of their fiancées Fiordiligi and Dorabella. The men agree to follow his instructions for twenty-four hours. He then informs the women that their men have gone away to war. There follows a fast-moving romantic comedy involving plenty of disguises and seduction.
Director Tim Albery’s brilliant idea is to squeeze all the action into a frivolous world of eighteenth century science, taking Don Alfonso to be an Enlightenment scientist dressed in black, who presides over an investigation into human frailty and the way in which we are led by our emotions. The set is one big scientific instrument, related to a camera obscura, first seen as a rosewood flat with a huge lens in the middle, which rises to reveal a chamber in shades of grey, with white lines for doorways. This fits with the idea of the opera as a chamber piece, with an orchestra in which horns are important and violins become quite skittish when necessary.
Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, which means ‘Rustic Chivalry’, opens on 15 February. It falls into the ‘verismo’ category of Italian opera, which means it is realistic, as opposed to grandiose. It has a plot involving passionate love, heavy religiosity, revenge and murder, set in nineteenth-century Sicily. This production is set in Poland around the 1970s, when Soviet-installed communism was still in command. The austerity of that period is played up, in line with an interpretation of verismo and with the facts of history, because Sicily and Poland are to some extent still staunchly conservative Catholic places which have been overrun frequently by foreign powers. As with the Mozart, there might be plenty in the music for first-timers to recognise. Get a ticket for it just to hear Opera North’s wonderful chorus sing the Easter Hymn – and to see an original 500cc Polski Fiat car.
Pairing with this is Rachmaninoff’s Aleko, which he wrote as a graduation piece when his career was just starting. Based on a narrative poem by Alexander Pushkin, ‘The Gypsies’, which tells a tale of love and revenge, it could be an excellent partner. Moscow critics at the composer’s conservatoire wrote about its ‘daring harmonies’. I guess that both operas together run for about three hours, allowing for time to change sets.
Main image: Philip Rhodes as Alfio and Katie Bray as Lola with the Chorus of Opera North in Cavalleria Rusticana. Photograph by Robert Workman 2017.
