Caruso - Lady Gregory in America (Wexford, 2024)

Alberto Caruso - Lady Gregory in America

Wexford Festival Opera, 2024

Alberto Caruso, Aoife Spillane-Hinks, Erin Fflur, Jane Burnell, Henry Strutt, Bríd Ní Ghruagáin, Deirdre Higgins, Holly Teague, Helen Maree Cooper, Lawrence Gillians, Christian Loizou, Gabriel Seawright, Michael Ferguson, Henry Grant Kerswell, Davide Zaccherini, Cathal McCabe, Vladimir Sima

Jerome Hynes Theatre, National Opera House, Wexford - 24th October 2024

Despite her importance as a major figure in the history of Irish drama, Lady Augusta Gregory is not a name that will mean a great deal to most people. Even in Ireland where her plays are also rarely performed, her name and contribution to Irish culture - and indeed politics, the Irish language and the country's folklore - is perhaps only really appreciated by those involved with the theatre. Mention Dublin's Abbey Theatre or the play The Playboy of the Western World and a much wider public will know of their significance, yet Lady Gregory is inextricably linked to both. For that reason if for nothing else - not least the almost total erasure of women’s historical contribution to the arts in Ireland - Lady Gregory is a name that deserves to adorn an opera, and Colm Tóibín working again with Alberto Caruso after the success of their previous opera for Wexford in 2022, The Master, duly obliges but perhaps doesn't quite hit the mark this time.

Along with W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory was one of the co-founders of the now prestigious Abbey Theatre in Dublin and was involved in the controversy that arose when J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World was first performed there in 1907. The play itself contributed to the status - not to mention the notoriety - of the theatre, for daring to present works that challenged or were seen as challenging the power of the Catholic Church who denounced the play as immoral and "mocking the purity of Irish women". Lady Gregory was not at the Abbey when the controversy, protests and riots erupted, but she did bring the play - and the uproar surrounding it - to America in 1911, where it was presented with the former President Roosevelt in attendance.

It's this aspect of her career that Colm Tóibín chooses to represent the significance of Lady Gregory's contribution to Irish art and culture in Lady Gregory in America. While choices have to be made out of necessity for the sake of dramatic presentation, omitting large proportions of her life, literary, theatrical and cultural achievements for the sake of finding an all-encompassing episode that reflects on her character and personality, there is a sense nonetheless that the opera is more interested in the cultural phenomenon of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World. Whether that does sufficient justice to Lady Gregory, it is a work that nonetheless does represent an important landmark and change in how Ireland would choose to represent itself to the world, and Lady Gregory was very much a part of that sea change.

As far as it is depicted in the opera, the troubles in bringing the play to America begin even before the theatre group leave Ireland. Anyone associated with the play, denounced by the Church as immoral and blasphemous with its use of bad language and referring to ladies wearing “shifts”, places their immortal soul in peril, and Mrs Kerrigan is not going to let her young son be part of it, playing that boastful murderer, Christy Mahon. The formidable Lady Gregory sees off any opposition however and young Kerrigan is won over by the promise of the delights of the tongue of Molly Allgood, who is to star opposite him as Pegeen in the play, so Kerrigan's mother disguises herself and sneaks into the Abbey Players performing Widow Quin to do what she can to prevent it being performed.

She need hardly have worried, as the reputation of the play is already known in New York, the audience primed to respond with shouted abuse, the throwing of stink bombs, rosary beads and holy water. This just isn't the kind of romantic view of Irish that the Americans want to see. Why couldn't they just do a nice play about girls saying prayers and boys playing hurling? When they arrive in Philadelphia, the nerves of the company are shattered and Mrs Kerrigan is ready to play her hand, warning the police that they have a duty to arrest anyone who utters the scandalous use of the word "shift" or should a lady actor dare to show an ankle. Arrests are made, the case only dismissed due to the intervention of the lawyer John Quinn, a friend and admirer of Lady Gregory.

Although likewise premiering in Wexford as a 'Pocket Opera', the setting and musical treatment of Caruso and Tóibín's previous work The Master, based on the life of another major literary figure Henry James, felt like a true opera, bringing an insightful melancholic beauty and tragedy to its subject. For Lady Gregory in America however Tóibín chooses to represent this episode as a something of a farce, playing the outdated religious notions of propriety from 100 years ago as something laughable. And indeed they would be farcical if they weren't so serious and had real implications for Catholics in Ireland, which were particularly oppressive towards women. The Playboy of the Western World was an important work for changing or at least challenging those attitudes, but it's the choice to present this as a wholly comic episode that fails to do justice to both the play and Lady Gregory's role in the greater scheme of things.

While Erin Fflur is excellent in the role of Lady Gregory, her role as a principal is somewhat downplayed then, the focus rather turning to young J.M. Kerrigan and Molly Allgood. There is definitely something worth exploring there in how it reflects the challenges facing young people and the changing times, the relationship between them blooming when removed from the oppressive society back home. It's there indeed that the lyrical qualities of Caruso’s score come to the fore and this central transformation is extended to the rest of the troupe, the police officers and even Kerrigan's mother finding love with the judge she tried to influence to lock them all up. The central theme then becomes one that gives love and the freedom to choose who we love as the engine for great social change.

Lady Gregory in America however doesn't have the lyrical quality of Caruso and Tóibín's previous work to allow for such reflection. The larger part of the opera is played for laughs and feels like light opera or even a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, with jaunty rhythms and chanted repetition of mocking absurd phrases. It makes for a very enjoyable light opera certainly, tightly scripted, Tóibín providing plenty of exposition and never taking it all too seriously, but in doing so it fails to give us anything of any great depth or insight into the reality of the times. Of course that's easy to say when the attitudes are in the past (although some have persisted and have held influence up to not so long ago) and easier to make fun of how absurd they seem now, but it does make light of how difficult and necessary it was to challenge those ideas.

With much of the libretto being delivered Sprechstimme fashion, and the focus being on comedy rather than seeking to find any lyrical content, there is a sense that Lady Gregory in America would work just as well or better as a play. There is little here that gains any deeper meaning through the musical setting. When Alfredo Caruso, taking on the duties of music director and orchestra with solo piano accompaniment, is allowed to delve a little more into the relationships that develop - Lady Gregory inexplicably being largely neglected on that front, her relationship with John Quinn not really developed - the opera does gain a little bit more of a sparkle. 

The singing performances contribute to that also with excellent singing from all the leads. Lady Gregory, not as imperious as you might expect considering the role she assumes here, is nonetheless well characterised and sung by Erin Fflur. There is a mighty performance from Henry Strutt as J.M. Kerrigan and the duets with Jane Burnell's Molly Allgood are quite special. The comic tone of the work however presents a wonderful opportunity for Mrs Kerrigan to lead the way and Bríd Ní Ghruagáin almost steals the show with a very entertaining and superbly sung performance. As with The Master in 2022 in the small Jerome Hynes Theatre at National Opera House in Wexford, the production flows wonderfully from scene to scene, this time under the direction of Aoife Spillane-Hinks. Not a great opera, Lady Gregory in America is an enjoyable enough entertainment based on a worthy subject, but its treatment is not one to make a sufficiently lasting impression.

External links: Wexford Festival Opera

Verdi - Ernani (Buxton, 2024)

Giuseppe Verdi - Ernani

Buxton International Festival, 2024

Adrian Kelly, Jamie Manton, Roman Arndt, André Heyboer, Alastair Miles, Nadine Benjamin, Jane Burnell, Emyr Lloyd Jones, Theo Perry

Buxton Opera House - 17th July 2024

"Please be aware: This production involves death, blood, themes of physical and mental abuse, torture and suggestion of gun violence"

If you didn't know which opera you were going to see, the trigger-warning signs placed around the Buxton Opera House would at least give you a reliable hint that it could only be an early Verdi opera. In fact it could be any early Verdi opera. In this case it is indeed one of those rarely performed works, Ernani, with Act II just before the interval resounding to cries of "Sangue e vendetta!" ("blood and vengeance!"). I wonder how they managed without trigger-warnings in Verdi’s time when this was first performed in 1844. Perhaps that's why there was so much oppression and war being waged by authoritarian rulers and dictators back then, whereas now ...oh, hold on…

Sangue e vendetta indeed, there is not a lot of subtlety in early Verdi, but as was noted recently in the early Verdi compilation opera Rivoluzione e Nostalgia at La Monnaie in Brussels, there is quite a lot of rousing music and singing and a lot of full-blooded drama in these works. Engaging plots not so much, in fact with three powerful men struggling for the hand of one woman, Ernani is not unlike the situation that La Monnaie developed for their early Verdi mixtape, in as much as it's fairly standard plot fare. Attila, I seem to recall, has much the same situation. It's tempting to compare this one with Don Carlos, which itself isn't perfect, but it shows up the vast difference between early and later Verdi. One need only compare how Don Carlo (later to become Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor) here reflects on power in his aria at the tomb of Charlemagne with a similar tomb scene in Don Carlos (over the tomb indeed of Charles V) and the difference in emotional torment and soul searching is apparent.

Not that it matters greatly as far as Ernani is concerned. Plot and character isn't everything. Well, it is perhaps for most other works of opera and drama, but Verdi is a special case. In some respects the composer is tied to tradition and to the taste for historical melodrama of the day, to characters making wild romantic gestures and binding themselves unforced into grand promises that only serve to make the plot even more dramatic. There is only one thing that can make that even more dramatically powerful (powerful doesn't necessarily mean credible) and that’s Verdi's music played at full tilt.

And he really goes for it in Ernani, as does the Opera North orchestra under conductor Adrian Kelly at the 2024 Buxton International Festival. The music is not as heavy-handed as you might think, but never passes up an opportunity to throw in a huge chorus with a punchy flourish at the end. The main feature that Verdi also relies on is the need for singers of an exceptionally high standard for the four of the demanding central roles. You get that right and you have something powerful on your hands, but weaknesses in any of those roles and the whole thing falls apart. There is no question that the exceptional cast assembled here were as good as you could hope for this opera a fighting chance of success, but the options for the director Jamie Manton were limited and despite the strengths elsewhere in the music and the production, he wasn't able to find a way to make it work successfully as a drama.

Considering what he had to work with as a plot, it seems like a reasonable idea to focus instead on character and the interaction between the principal figures of the drama. It's an option I suppose, but it turns out not to be a particularly fruitful avenue to explore. The plot and the motivations of the characters are not complicated as much as a bit daft, or daft to non-existent, certainly in the first two acts. Somehow all three pretenders for the hand of Elvira all contrive to be in the same place as the unfortunate lady is being prepared for marriage, and they have a big row about it. That's about the height of the first half of the work. 

Acts III and IV involves some contrived twists around a secret society of conspirators,  the secret identity of the bandit Ernani being in reality Don Juan of Aragon, a king in disguise and an unusual vow where Ernani promises to kill himself on the sound of a bugle. You would hope that he doesn't come within earshot of just some random bugler. If it wasn't for the fact that they are notable medieval historical figures all squabbling for the hand of the Duke's niece (including the Duke himself), it would be a banal romantic drama. Which, since it's not being played historically in this production, I'm afraid that's how it comes across. It's undoubtedly hard, but with Verdi's score surely not impossible to make these figures something a little less one-dimensional.

The stage production design relied on dramatic lighting which was highly effective for the charged scenes, the all-purpose triangular recessed set serving well for bedroom, court and crypt. Not related to any period however, it felt rather generic and it didn't place the drama into any kind of meaningful context that would make it feel relatable or even credible. That's a tall order I must admit, and based on a previous viewing of this opera in a more traditional setting it may indeed be an impossible ask, but it didn't get a lot of help in direction and character that lacked the conviction to match the overheated drama.

The singing and dramatic performances however were not lacking in any way. Let's start with the chorus as they play a major role in ramping up the tension throughout. They were in fine voice here, providing those big moments to lift the work up above the banal individual romantic and personal dramas. All too often in these Verdi works it's the female soprano in an extremely demanding role that is often the weak link, but that certainly wasn't the case here. Nadine Benjamin was simply outstanding as Elvira with a big voice and fiery delivery. Roman Arndt was terrific as Ernani, presenting a strong pairing with Benjamin's Elvira. The the other two pretenders for her hand also have to be made of stern stuff, as Don Carlo is a king and Don Ruy Gomez de Silva is a duke, both needing to be formidable challengers to Ernani. André Heyboer and Alastair Miles ensured that was the case.

Musically, this was a thrilling account of Ernani, certainly worthwhile to demonstrate the often underrated qualities of Verdi's early work, particularly when you have singing and musical direction of this calibre. Unfortunately, Francesco Maria's Piave's libretto for this old-fashioned romantic melodrama does not hold up well, and despite his best efforts of the director Jamie Manton, there is little depth of human character to be found in these stock historical caricatures.

External links: Buxton International Festival