GIOVANNA
D’ARCO, BUXTON FESTIVAL
Buxton
Opera House
IT could be
said that this year’s operas at the Buxton Festival are all about girl power.
All three of the in-house productions have a woman’s name as their title, and
the visiting Dido And Aeneas from The English Concert was built around one of
the greatest tragic female roles.
Watching soprano
Kate Ladner punch the air as she took her curtain call in Giovanna D’Arco –
Joan Of Arc, by Verdi – I wondered whether she saw it as a kind of victory,
too. It certainly was a triumph for her as a performer.
The title
role is the sole female lead in this version of the story (written by Verdi’s
collaborator, Solera, following Schiller’s play The Maid Of Orleans). She’s on
stage most of the time and has vocal mountains to climb. She surmounted them
brilliantly, with ringing top notes that shone like beacons over the full
ensemble, chorus and orchestra.
The
intriguing thing about this work – not often performed now, though it’s later
than some of Verdi’s better-known pieces – is that it digs pretty deep into the
psychology of its heroine. She hears voices, but they are alternately those of
demons and angels (yes – real ones, on stage!), and she is torn between their
conflicting demands.
She tries
to suppress her unspoken love for Carlo (the Dauphin/King of France
And there’s
her interfering (to put it mildly) father, who betrays her to the English –
sung by Devid Cecconi: another layer in this interpretation is the
Traviata-like triangle of young lovers and well-meaning but out-of-touch father
figure.
Director
Elijah Moshinsky is well aware of these human and relationship tensions and brings
them clearly to the fore. The set (Russell Craig) is a simple but effective
one-piece that reflects, literally and acoustically, the action and the music,
while also providing a vantage point for the demons and angels to sing from.
Lighting (Malcolm Rippeth) and sound (Seb Frost) effects are used to evoke the
thunderbolts and battles, and it all works very well.
Verdi was a
master of stirring marching tunes and he got into the groove for both the
French and English in this opera. With Stuart Stratford (recently announced as
the new music director of Scottish Opera) conducting the Northern Chamber
Orchestra and Festival Chorus, the big tunes and scenes romped along as much as
the tender ones were beautiful. Buxton Festival has its limitations – small
stage, small chorus, moderate budget – but within those realities this is one
of the best efforts I’ve seen there.
****
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