© Alastair Muir
The Women of Whitechapel: Janis Kelly, Marie McLaughlin, Natalya Romaniw, Susan Bullock and Lesley Garrett
Last Saturday I was at the first performance of a new opera by Iain Bell - Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel - the finale to the 2018-19 English national Opera season. And it was a starry evening indeed - as illustrated by the picture above. But the photo does not include perhaps the greatest star of all, Josephine Barstow who presided over the business with scary authority and astonishing vocal power. To think that the first time we met professionally was when she was the understudy Mimi at Glyndebourne in 1967 - 52 years ago. Help!!!!!! And there was another old friend and colleague from much the same time in the cast - Alan Opie. Such durability.......but there is constant renewal, and this was exemplified by the remarkable performance by young Natalya Romaniw, herself a recent Mimi at ENO, as well as a delectable Tatyana in Garsington's Eugene Onegin, who dominated the proceedings vocally with glorious singing and extraordinary stamina. She goes from strength to strength.
In a dark evocative and extremely effective production by Daniel Kramer the substantial strengths of the English National Opera as a company were on full display - chorus and orchestra also stars and Martyn Brabbins in the pit with his usual master touch and authority. The full house cheered and it will eventually be seen in Leeds where the co-producer Opera North will produce it next year.
© Donald Cooper
Rupert Charlesworth (Tamino) and Lucy Crowe (Pamina) in their trial by water
And last night I managed to catch up with Simon McBurney's production of the Magic Flute - already seen in this house and also at Aix and Amsterdam. I missed the opening as I was recovering from knee surgery but was delighted to be there yesterday evening at one of the most enjoyable performances of this piece that I have seen in all the sixty plus years since I first saw it. How many hundred since? Goodness knows........
With such distinguished artists in the cast as Lucy Crowe and Brindley Sherratt, both on magnificent form, it was destined to give pleasure. And there was a young man in the pit clearly set for great things in the future, Ben Gernon. This piece is a trap for young (and indeed older) conductors......he passed with flying colours, pacing it perfectly and getting outstanding playing from ENO's fine orchestra.
And in between these two happy events I was at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday evening for the Philharmonia Orchestra's concert - Brahms (the violin concerto) and Shostakovich's 5th Symphony. The conductor was the rather spectacular Chinese Xian Zhang and a Russian/German soloist in the Brahms Alina Pogostkina. These two women produced high order music making - an invigorating end to the weekend. What pleasures there are to be had in London - too many I guess to take them all in.....
Meanwhile my knee is progressing well and I can walk properly for the first time in 12 months! Yay!!
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