Scottish Opera, 29/10/2017
Tchaikovsky : Iolanta
Chorus of Iolanta
Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Stuart Stratford
Scottish Opera's Music Director, Stuart Stratford, uses these Sunday afternoon concerts to explore some of the rarer corners of the repertory, that the company has (usually) not staged before - and presumably has no plans to stage in the near future. This year, the theme is Russian, since the company will be ending its season with Eugene Onegin, and the first offering, also by Tchaikovsky, was his last opera, Iolanta.
I never did get to see the Paris Opera production which paired Iolanta with The Nutcracker, as was originally done, so it's still a bit hard to imagine. There's a world of difference in sound between the two, and the shadow of The Queen of Spades lies particularly heavily over Iolanta, though the subject matter here is far less gloomy. Scottish Opera presented a line-up including five Russian-speaking singers of the ten soloists, including Gulnara Shafigullina, who has been starring in the company's performances of La traviata for the last couple of weeks, and which I reviewed a few days ago. As is usual in these Sunday afternoon concerts, it was a semi-staged performance, with some direction of the performers, and the all-important roses nicely twined around the conductor's rostrum.
As I've noted before, the acoustics of these performances are not always ideal. With the singers standing in front of the orchestra, and over a covered orchestra pit, therefore well clear of the proscenium, when the orchestra is playing at full throttle - and there are plenty of occasions for that with this lush score - even the strongest voices can be a bit swamped. The final hymn of praise was certainly glowingly delivered, but it was almost impossible to distinguish any of the soloists' voices in the mix. However, that slight irritation aside, this was a very sound performance overall, a good reminder of why Iolanta is steadily gaining ground (in the West - it's always been fairly popular at home) after years of neglect.
Shafigullina projected the vulnerability of the title role well. When approaching a held note in her upper register, she showed a tendency to come in very slightly under, before 'tuning in' properly, which became particularly evident in the love duet, but it never became intolerable. She was especially effective in the last scene, projecting Iolanta's panicked response to this new world that she sees for the first time very expressively. Alexey Dolgov, as Vaudémont, doesn't have the most beautiful tenor sound, but sang clearly, confidently, with a good range of colour and with an appealing earnestness to the character.
Alexei Tanovitski, as King René, has a rather hollow bass sound, not my favourite type, and which suffered particularly from the acoustics, but the slightly tormented nobility of the personage came across well. Alexey Gusev was an ebullient, very lightly comic Robert, delivering his aria with appropriately fiery passion, while Ashley Holland's darker baritone suited the wise Ibn Hakia admirably. All of the smaller parts were also extremely well sung, and the small chorus - somewhat awkwardly parked in the slips of the dress circle, to either side of the auditorium - sang with verve. There were one or two points where I felt the orchestra didn't quite have the Tchaikovsky sound, but then they caught up, and delivered the goods, which promises well for Eugene Onegin next year.
[Next : 4th November]
Chorus of Iolanta
Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Stuart Stratford
Scottish Opera's Music Director, Stuart Stratford, uses these Sunday afternoon concerts to explore some of the rarer corners of the repertory, that the company has (usually) not staged before - and presumably has no plans to stage in the near future. This year, the theme is Russian, since the company will be ending its season with Eugene Onegin, and the first offering, also by Tchaikovsky, was his last opera, Iolanta.
I never did get to see the Paris Opera production which paired Iolanta with The Nutcracker, as was originally done, so it's still a bit hard to imagine. There's a world of difference in sound between the two, and the shadow of The Queen of Spades lies particularly heavily over Iolanta, though the subject matter here is far less gloomy. Scottish Opera presented a line-up including five Russian-speaking singers of the ten soloists, including Gulnara Shafigullina, who has been starring in the company's performances of La traviata for the last couple of weeks, and which I reviewed a few days ago. As is usual in these Sunday afternoon concerts, it was a semi-staged performance, with some direction of the performers, and the all-important roses nicely twined around the conductor's rostrum.
As I've noted before, the acoustics of these performances are not always ideal. With the singers standing in front of the orchestra, and over a covered orchestra pit, therefore well clear of the proscenium, when the orchestra is playing at full throttle - and there are plenty of occasions for that with this lush score - even the strongest voices can be a bit swamped. The final hymn of praise was certainly glowingly delivered, but it was almost impossible to distinguish any of the soloists' voices in the mix. However, that slight irritation aside, this was a very sound performance overall, a good reminder of why Iolanta is steadily gaining ground (in the West - it's always been fairly popular at home) after years of neglect.
 |
| L to R : Aled Hall, Alexey Gusev, Ashley Holland, Alexei Tanovitski, Alexey Dolgov, Gulnara Shafigullina Stuart Stratford (behind), James Platt, Anne-Marie Owens, Nadine Livingston, Laura Zigmantaite Scottish Opera, Iolanta (© the author, 2017) |
Shafigullina projected the vulnerability of the title role well. When approaching a held note in her upper register, she showed a tendency to come in very slightly under, before 'tuning in' properly, which became particularly evident in the love duet, but it never became intolerable. She was especially effective in the last scene, projecting Iolanta's panicked response to this new world that she sees for the first time very expressively. Alexey Dolgov, as Vaudémont, doesn't have the most beautiful tenor sound, but sang clearly, confidently, with a good range of colour and with an appealing earnestness to the character.
Alexei Tanovitski, as King René, has a rather hollow bass sound, not my favourite type, and which suffered particularly from the acoustics, but the slightly tormented nobility of the personage came across well. Alexey Gusev was an ebullient, very lightly comic Robert, delivering his aria with appropriately fiery passion, while Ashley Holland's darker baritone suited the wise Ibn Hakia admirably. All of the smaller parts were also extremely well sung, and the small chorus - somewhat awkwardly parked in the slips of the dress circle, to either side of the auditorium - sang with verve. There were one or two points where I felt the orchestra didn't quite have the Tchaikovsky sound, but then they caught up, and delivered the goods, which promises well for Eugene Onegin next year.
[Next : 4th November]