Jane Glover, a former leader of the Royal Academy of Music's opera department, called her recently published excellent book "Handel in London, the Making of a Genius".
So it is so nice just a few weeks later to go to the RAM for Semele yesterday evening, in the most uncut version I have ever encountered - lots of stuff I have never heard before! All the omens were good with Laurence Cummings and the really excellent Royal Academy Sinfionia in the pit of the gorgeous Susie Sainsbury Theatre - the RAM's new jewel. And we had the prospect of an exciting production by Olivia Fuchs - a director who has produced such excellent work at Garsington and elsewhere.
I must learn to manage my expectations after all these years! Handel is tough and despite the excellence of the Royal Academy Opera's young cast I felt it was all somehow too courteous and lacking in a "lets really go for it" attitude. The lovely Lithuanian soprano in the title role Lina Dambrauskaite is a splendid singer who can certainly deal with this challenging role without a blink. And in this uncut version it is HUGE! But ballsy 18th century theatre can not afford to be so polite! So the whole thing really never quite got off the ground for me......
Nevertheless there are some lovely singers in the RAO this year - Olivia Warburton and Alexander Simpson made a fetching couple as Ino and Athamas, and I really liked Joseph Buckmaster's strong contribution as Apollo at the very end. The rest of the cast were all up to the very high standard of this marvelous institution. But it somehow was firing at less than full throttle last night. There are performances with alternating casts until Saturday.
Meanwhile back on Monday evening I had a special treat at the offices of Faber and Faber in Bloomsbury where Mark Wigglesworth was launching his fascinating new book - "The Silent Musician - Why Conducting Matters" in conversation with Nicholas Hytner. We were treated to 75 minutes of absorbing conversation between these two exceptionally wise and articulate artists, and including some 25 minutes of interaction with their audience. Its a good read and worth a visit to Amazon to get a copy......
And yesterday morning there was a special treat, the dress rehearsal of ENO's staging of the Britten War Requiem. It opens tomorrow evening and I feel confident that it will make a profoundly moving contribution to events marking the 100th anniversary of the Armistice in 1918. This is a totally involving production with the highest values both on the stage and in the pit, guided by Daniel Kramer and Martyn Brabbins, the artistic leaders of ENO coming up with something exceptional. More about that at the weekend.
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