Attempting to make an opera plot more sensible?
Yesterday at Glyndebourne to see il Turco in Italia - Glyndebourne’s reinterpretation of Rossini through Pirandello’s spectacles.
The ‘poet’s’ characters he puts into his comedy are no longer spied (and then fantasised on) on the sea-front in Naples but imagined in his studio wholesale – but he still has problems with getting their story ‘right’ (not, of course, plausible, this is opera after all).
The first act (‘first draft’) is set in a surreal space, around the poet’s work-desk and includes a screen which shows the poets plotting and plot structures and early passages of text – all very funny – the second moves to a fully realised delicatessen café. Both settings work well but it is unusual to see two such different design styles jell.
But the important thing with opera is of course the quality of the music and singing – and here it excels (though I have been without live music for so long my judgement may be clouded). In particular Elena Tsallagova as Fiorella sustains a wonderful range and clarity – and Michele Angelini as Narciso delivers his second Act solo with brio (channelling his inner Freddie Mercury as he does so).
Additionally there are a number of quartets and even quintets which are delivered with huge brio and accuracy. The staging is overtly Covid Compliant (they brought back the Prodnose with a two meter rule to separate the actors from their garden production of last year), and the mask wearing which non singing performers stuck to suddenly made huge sense in the masked ball in Act 1, when it really was difficult to distinguish who was whom (all wearing identical costumes helped there too).
The audience (50% only full with restrictions) seemed to enjoy themselves immensely in this joyful production.
There is limited availability and there may be returns, but this sadly closes before restrictions might be eased after June 21st.
This was the first thing we saw in 2021 – when theatres were allowed to partially open – with ‘socially distanced seating’ and masks throughout. Our previous outing, (a 6 month gap!) before the Christmas 2020 lockdowns, was at the beginning of December 2020.