No laughing matter…
Last night at Luisa Miller at Glyndebourne. This opera is based on a play by Friedrich von Schiller, not well known for his comic farces… and this is a Tragedy with a capital T (just a warning).
Starkly set in modern dress in an all-white set narrowing to a door at the back of the stage, dressed simply with a table and a couple of chairs, with most characters in dark business suits, your focus is on the music and singing.
Which is not misplaced. There is no weakness (and much strength) in the voices of the principals (much of the chorus work is off set) particularly Mané Galoyan (Luisa); Evgeny Stavinsky (Count Walter); Vladislav Sulimsky (Miller) and Charles Castronovo (Rodolfo, for the first half of the run).
There is an extended a cappella trio which shows great strength and accuracy, and is very moving.
Apart from some scurrying round from the chorus to imply actions at Court and in the village the direction is quite static (with lots of meaningful watching from the sidelines) – the action is (and very successfully) in the singing – with movements from the principals always meaningful – but hanging around at the sides of the set downstage mean that those not in the stalls and central Circle are missing quite a lot – which includes some subtle lighting work to create looming shadows on one side wall.
The seats affected are marked (and priced) as such, of course, but in my mind ‘limited view’ doesn’t mean missing a third of the action (at a guess).
But this production (particularly with the right seats – a majority of them, of course) is very much worth a view (and listen).
Because the house was only opened up fully in the last few weeks there may still be seats (although you can never tell now whether any gaps were unsold or the putative occupants ‘pinged’!).