Varasemate toodangu ülevaated
7The whole cast sing, act and dance with great skill and hilarity, Italian conductor Sesto Quatrini gets into the spirit of the fun, and it all adds up to exactly what we need at the end to mark the end of Covid.
In this new production of “Il turco in Italia,” Mariame Clément makes it a story about storytelling, overlaying a totally original supplementary story created by Lucy Wadham. Poet Prosdocimo is a famous novelist, who is signing copies of his book “Motherland,” before beginning work, years later, on his comedy, to be titled “The Turk.” The other characters emanate from his creative consciousness, where he tries on different styles and moods, his thoughts projected on a big notepad that sits upstage. “19th Century (“not sexy”), he muses, before moving the action into the 1950s (“neorealism”), in a delicatessen that could be straight out of Fellini, designed beautifully and colorfully by Julia Hansen.
Mariam Battistelli as Norina demands attention with her racy soprano - she is the perfect mixture of alluring feminine charm, devilish mischief and fiery temper.
And Battistelli, where do you start? I, along with everyone else, was blown away by her vocal fireworks and exquisite trills. Throw in some fantastic comic timing and she’s a stage diva I’d watch again and again.
When it emerged that one of the world’s biggest companies had hired a young and almost completely inexperienced guy for their latest effort, many were perturbed. But Chris Addison proves them wrong in Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’Étoile which has opened at the Royal Opera House. The comedian — known for his role in The Thick Of It — plays Smith, a role which fits his acting and stand-up talents like a glove. It involves, after all, the kind of zany and bizarre plot that would turn Malcolm Tucker into a mute pile of flailing eyebrows.Kate Lindsey stands out in her turn as Lazuli; her singing on O petite étoile, where Lazuli thanks his lucky star is especially poignant. Ouf’s Couplets de pal (describing his penchant for impaling) is the perfect introduction to this opera’s dark humour.The acting across the cast raises the laugh levels as does a set inspired by Terry Gilliam’s work for Monty Python. The addition of many modern references — including verbal nods to the Mayor of London and the capital’s most famous consulting detective — gives L’Étoile unexpected twists when they are least expected. On the same night that Addison popped his opera cherry, director Mariame Clement opened her account in Covent Garden and conductor Mark Elder celebrated 40 years of waving a baton for the Royal Opera House. This low-profile and laudable production may yet lay the groundwork for more milestones yet.
