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March 08, 2005
Semele
Best of the season so far: Handel’s Semele met all expectations with music and drama complementing each other perfectly. The new production was a witty, economical presentation which never asked more of the singers than was fitting. I saw it on 4 March.
If the production was conceived as a vehicle for Lisa Milne, Scotland’s young soprano star, the work proved equally suited to showing off the virtues of the company. The whole cast excelled.
The Glasgow-born early music specialist Christian Curnym led the Orchestra of Scottish Opera from the deep-set pit of Glasgow’s Theatre Royal in a lively and engaging reading of the score with some beautiful solo playing. Lisa Milne did not disappoint in the title role. She has a wonderful easy, pleasing, comfortable sound, and sings with musicality and good diction. It remains to be seen whether she has a distinctive enough voice to have a major career. She will soon be singing Pamina at the Met and at Glyndebourne.
Susan Bickley was excellent as Ino with very clear diction, perhaps less successful in the more formidable, and more demanding, role of Jupiter’s neglected wife, Juno. Jeremy Ovenden was an elegant, stylish and incisive Jupiter, particularly in ‘Lest she too much explain’ and ‘Where’er you walk’, and Kate Royal was effective and very funny as Iris, the Goddess of the Rainbow. Michael George as the Chief Priest, Cadmus and Somnus, and Arnon Zlotnik at Athamas were also well cast.
Semele originated as an oratorio rather than an opera, and that provided the starting point of John La Bouchardièr’s production. the chorus and soloists entered in concert garb and occupied two rows of collapsible metal chairs, however the composure of the main characters soon broke down and the drama took off.
The witty ‘nouveau baroque’ production used outsized 18th-century costumes, cosmic projections, clever use of some grainy video, and some very effective props. Semele luxuriated and frolicked on a giant pillow for ‘Endless pleasure’, then appeared resplendent in gold for ‘Myself I shall adore’ while Iris, who first appears as a pink-wigged ice-cream seller in the initial ‘oratorio’ titillates Somnus, God of Sleep, by revealing some spectacularly reflective underwear. The big dramatic moments including Semele’s scorching at the sight of her immortal lover’s true appearance were all handled effectively and economically.
Posted by Simon Holledge at March 8, 2005 07:35 PM
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