Donizetti - Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (Wexford, 2024)

Gaetano Donizetti - Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali

Wexford Festival Opera, 2024

Danila Grassi, Orpha Phelan, Sharleen Joynt, Paolo Bordogna, Giuseppe Toia, Matteo Loi, Paola Leoci, Alberto Robert, William Kyle, Hannah Bennett, Philip Kalmanovitch, Henry Grant Kerswell

RTE Player - 25th October 2024

I may have been a little bit harsh in my earlier review of Charles Villiers Stanford's The Critic - well, the clue is in the name of the opera - and about comic opera in general, but by way of defense against accusations of not having a sense of humour, I give you Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali by Donizetti, also performed as part of the Wexford Festival Opera's 2024 Theatre within Theatre themed programme. Now this is how a comic opera ought to be, hilariously satirical with a foot in the real world, sympathetically presented with original touches that keep it fresh, contemporary and hugely funny.

Such is the mastery of Donizetti's opera that it works as well today as it would have done 200 years ago. Written in 1831, it hasn't aged a day and retains its capacity to entertain and remain open to new ideas and interpretations. That applies to its sense of humour and its only slightly exaggerated satire of the stage, its theatrical conventions and characters, but also for its qualities as a fine opera. Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali ("The conventions and inconveniences of the stage") not only plays up to the absurdities of those conventions, it exploits them for good opera, as in the first scene with the Prima Donna soprano exhibits her range impressively in a rehearsal of one of her arias.

The original setting here might be a provincial theatre putting on a new musical setting of an opera seria, Romolo ed Ersilia, but the pressures and tensions are recognisable in many artistic contexts, not just operatic. Here the viewer is given backstage access to the rehearsals, where things aren't going well. There are a lot of elements that need to work together when putting on any opera, and with the impresario working under considerable budgetary constraints, not only are the timescales for the rehearsals tight, but the schedules for costume design, set building, lighting and choreography all have to come into alignment. Since the singers can't even manage to get along with each other or with the roles they have been given, demanding that the composer makes last minutes changes and rewrite whole new numbers for them, it's going to be a challenge, to say the least, to bring all the other elements together for opening night. Such are the conventions and inconveniences of the stage.

Among the many strands of humour and show-off ability on offer from the supposedly starring tenor and soprano roles, the principal entertainment here comes from Mamma Agata, the pushy mother who demands more of an eye-catching role for her daughter Luigia who she is determined is going to be a big star. She's not only contemptuous of the conventions by demanding a larger singing role for daughter, but she is quite content to undermine and cut the roles of the star tenor and soprano. The diva isn't going to be upstaged by a mere 'Seconda Donna' but Mamma Agata's ambitions don't even end there. When her actions start causing walk-outs, she ends up offering to take on a role herself, only managing to stir up more division. The poor music director hasn't a chance, as Mamma Agata takes over the choreography in the Second Act as well, and ends up running/ruining the whole show.

It's a gift of a role, involving a baritone dressing up travesti and acting outrageously as a domineering stage mother. You can't go wrong with Mamma Agata, but you can always find ways to make it better, and the best way is to play it straight, which is what bass-baritone Paolo Bordogna does. No exaggeration is required ...well, none more than is necessary. It's all written into the part; the mamma should steal the show and indeed does here. You couldn't fault any element of his performance, bringing complete conviction to the role with fine comic acting and dreadfully good singing. He has the impresario eating out of his daughter's hand and the audience too hanging on every gesture. But the opera has a lot more to offer in terms of humorous situations and great performances that include Sharleen Joynt sparkling and sprinkling venom as the diva Daria Garbinati.

Although there is room within the recitative passages for a director to introduce additional elements and modern references for a modern audience, the creative director can find many other ways to work within the opera's framework. Orpha Phelan is a director who is very capable of that, her previous work for Wexford Lalla-Roukh demonstrating that ability (even if her La Bohème for Irish National Opera was a little more respectful and traditional). One of the amusing features she introduces is the tenor turning up for the wrong performance believing that he is actually rehearsing for a performance of The Sound of Music and wondering where all the Nazis and nuns are. He certainly finds the 'Mother Superior' intimidating when he is paired up with Mamma Agata for a duet. Hilarity, inevitably and calculatedly, ensues.

Produced in many different forms, often to include local and contemporary reference, Le convenienze is also open to additions and changes, the whole chaotic nature of the backstage rehearsals indeed encouraging extrapolation and reinterpretation. Wexford’s production keeps the original Italian provincial location but in a generic modern setting that doesn't indulge in current day trends - there are no mobile phones, social media comments or Taylor Swift references (not that I would have noticed). Instead they delve into the historical origins and references of the work, with the traditional insertion of arias from other works (much like Buxton's version, Viva la Diva developed a whole prologue of auditions for the roles), but seeking here to make them historically relevant to the work. The dance scene at the beginning of Act II for example is taken from the overture to Myslivecek’s 1773 setting of Romolo ed Ersilia. These are good choices, all of them contributing to the tone and humour of the work.

What is great about Le convenienze and where for example Stanford’s The Critic failed to convince - for me personally, although everyone else seemed to love it - is that Donizetti paints a scene that is quite believable. You don't have to be involved with the theatre or opera to know that rivalry, backstabbing and positioning go on and that there are massive egos and artistic sensitivities involved. It's well known even from movie star behaviour and there are plenty of divas in the modern music industry as well. You could easily map some of the situations here directly onto many contemporary figures without losing any of the detail and the explosiveness of the bad behaviours, but this production lets you do that yourself without any heavy-handed references.

Donizetti is one of the mainstays of the Wexford Festival Opera, who over the last 70 years have been ahead of the game in bringing many of the composer's forgotten and lost operas back to the stage, their efforts instrumental in consolidating his reputation as being worthy of recognition for more than just Lucia di Lammermoor. Considering it's a real crowd pleaser, a genuinely funny satire and a delightfully composed work that is unquestionably the highlight of this year's festival, it's surprising that Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali isn't more widely performed and enjoyed. In a festival that this year seemed to have too much levity for some critics (I hold my hand up to that), Wexford Festival Opera showed why it remains a good idea to keep Donizetti in the frame when it comes to quality rare opera.

External links: Wexford Festival Opera, RTE Streaming on YouTube

Puccini - La Bohème (Dublin, 2023)

Giacomo Puccini - La bohème

Irish National Opera, 2023

Sergio Alapont, Orpha Phelan, Celine Byrne, Sarah Brady, Merūnas Vitulskis, Iurii Samoilov, Gyula Nagy, Lukas Jakobski, Eddie Wade, Fearghal Curtis, David Scott, Kevin Neville

Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin - 26th November 2023

If you think there is nothing radical you can do to enhance Puccini's La bohème, then you've probably only seen variations of John Copley's Royal Opera House warhorse or the classic Franco Zeffirelli stage production and haven't seen the extraordinary versions over the last decade by Stefan Herheim and Claus Guth. Whether that is strictly necessary, whether it adds anything to what is already there and more than sufficient on its own in Puccini's score is another matter. Updated to a different time period but not contemporary (or in outer space) you get the feeling that this is the direction taken by Orpha Phelan for the Irish National Opera production. Why risk spoiling what is already perfect by trying to impose a contemporary situation upon it.

It's arguable in any case that Henry Murger's original 1851 novel 'Scènes de la vie de bohème' is very much about a specific time and place, but there is clearly much that can be read in the interrelated story collection that says much about society, poverty and artists. That however is not the main concern of Puccini's La bohème, or perhaps it is but with a shift of emphasis onto the romantic relationships that are also present in Murger. Puccini's La bohème is at heart a love story, two love stories even, supported by some of the most soaring romantic and tragic music composed for an opera. The best thing about Phelan's INO production is that it doesn't get in the way of this, but supports it almost exactly the way an audience expects. The worse thing about is that it gives you exactly what you expect.

Indeed, as the other (extreme) versions mentioned above indicate, since they make such a huge impression, it's a long time since I've seen a La bohème so lacking in surprises or inspiration. Even the current Royal Opera House production from 2018 had a freshness to it. The danger of this is that with familiarity the opera comes across as little more than a series of set pieces, and when it adds up to set pieces there's little sense of true emotion or drama. Well, that's a risk in the first half at least, and no matter what the production does (even in the hands of Guth), it would be hard not to feel almost devastated by the progression of the final two acts as scored by Puccini.

La bohème's enduring appeal as a tragic romantic opera drama needs little critical support or analysis on that front. The balance of the work is masterful, its contrasting of Rodolfo and Mimi's spark of love on a downward trajectory from its moment of ignition contrasted by Musetta and Marcello's relationship heading in the opposite direction. Puccini plays these two troubled relationships out simultaneously to the same music, with superb use of motifs and repeated refrains that play out in contrasting contexts. As familiar as it has become, there is no question that it's still a masterwork.

Whether it has anything deep or important to say depends on the experience of the individual listener. Certainly I've seen little in opera that comes close to the ecstatic experience of discovering love and the agonising pain of losing it (only Shakespeare can match this in Romeo and Juliet and in Othello). More specifically, it's how Puccini's music captures the rush of young love, the sensation of wanting to have it all and have it now, only later having to deal with the realities of life and relationships. And it has to be said that the realities of poverty and its impact on relationships is not underplayed, even if it's often shown in the context of the brevity of happiness grasped by the bohemian artists in Paris in a specific historical period.

Poverty, illness and death impacting on love and relationships is of course not something that only relates to a distant past. Orpha Phelan however is not too ambitious in her setting of this between WWI and WWII apparently, although like the last INO production, the Jack Furness directed Faust, it's somewhat random and non-specific. There are few twists in each of the scenes in the four acts of this La bohème, although they do flow together well, creating the necessary climate, light and conditions you would expect to find in each of those scenes. It all feels rather perfunctory, trying not to impose on it anything beyond what is necessary for those scenes to work, but in consequence, not really inviting you to consider them in a new light. It has a tendency to just wash over.

Indifference to the situation of the bohemians is the last thing you want from this opera, but there is one considerable factor that prevents this from happening (aside from Puccini's score conducted well here by Sergio Alapont) and it's the fact that you have you have everything you expect from a Rodolfo and a Mimi in the casting of Merūnas Vitulskis and Celine Byrne. In fact, you'd be hard pushed to find any better today, not just in terms of their ability to meet the technical challenges, but also in terms of the necessary passion that goes into performing these roles. Unfortunately, that's more down to the professionalism of the singers and their familiarity with the roles, as the stage direction didn't really add a great deal of conviction to dilemma that Rodolfo and Mimi find themselves in. The same can be said for all the main roles, especially the fabulous performances of Sarah Brady as Musetta and Iurii Samoilov as Marcello.

Irish National Opera were I feel a little more adventurous in their first few seasons since they were formed in 2018, even in their approach to the big operatic standards. Orpha Phelan has also been much more adventurous in the past with beautiful interpretations for the INO's La Cenerentola and Lalla Roukh for Wexford. Following the first opera this season Faust, it feels like post-pandemic they are focussing on bringing an audience back and taking them along with them. It might not appeal to those who like their opera productions a little more avant-garde but I'll say this for their La bohème; playing out to full houses at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin with an opera like this, performed to this kind of standard, there are a lot of people who will be back for the next one. And the next one is Salome, and there's no playing safe with that one. 

Links: Irish National Opera

David - Lalla-Roukh (Wexford, 2022)

Félicien David - Lalla-Roukh

Wexford Festival Opera, 2022

Steven White, Orpha Phelan, Gabrielle Philiponet, Pablo Bemsch, Ben McAteer, Emyr Wyn Jones, Thomas D Hopkinson, Niamh O’Sullivan, Lorcan Cranitch

O'Reilly Theatre, National Opera House, Wexford - 4th November 2022

There was colour and variety in the various approaches that the different directors took to the very different kind of operas offered by Wexford Festival Opera on the mainstage this year, but Orpha Phelan's take on Félicien David's Lalla-Roukh was more colourful and more adventurous than all the others combined. Where it was perhaps more successful was in how the production rose to the meet challenges posed not just in making a rare and largely forgotten opera attractive to a modern audience, but in how it addressed the specific challenges of David's opera without apparently losing any of the essential character of the original. 

On the one hand, it needed a more sensitive approach to cultural diversity in relation to the Middle East that were somewhat lacking in the rather literal approach taken to the production of Armida - in as far as you can take any opera involving magic and dragons literally. On the other hand, the plot of Lalla-Roukh itself, an opéra-comique with long passages of dialogue and exposition between songs, is not the most involved, with not too many twists and a 'surprise' conclusion that will surprise no-one. But it would be a shame all the same to go too far and lose the essential colour and character of the Arabian Nights-like tale.

Director Orpha Phelan went for a local approach, a fantasy approach, a fairy tale approach, basically anything that would work, neglecting no opportunity to add amusing visual jokes and nice little details that might be easily overlooked. It's a risky approach as there is a danger of overloading a light opera entertainment with more that it can withstand, but with good musical direction, the usual high standard of singing and choral support, and Orpha Phelan's unerring sense of taste and balance, Félicien David's opera proved to be an absolute joy.

It was a little disconcerting though for a Middle Eastern fantasy to open in an old-fashioned Bewley's-style café called Leila O'Rourke's Tea Emporium. Outside a homeless person searches through the contents of a modern wheelie bin while inside the shop explodes with the entrance of colourful characters in fancy dress costumes where they appear to have grabbed anything to hand in a mix-and-match without worrying too much about the matching aspect. The homeless man, who finds a few leftovers from the bin, has also retrieved Thomas Moore's book from the dumper and proceeds to relate the story of Lalla Rookh, explaining the unusual nature of the colourful costumed characters as mythical creatures that accompany Lalla-Roukh on her journey to be married to the King.

Although some of the large number of foreign visitors who regularly come to Wexford understandably struggled a little with the man's broad Irish accent loaded with a plenty of colloquialisms, it proved to be an excellent way of avoiding all the talking passages that risk disrupting the flow and character of the drama. It was also very witty, with knowing winks and - still very much in character - a little more direct in the insinuations and suggestions that would seem more obvious to a modern audience. There is even one scene where the illusion being spun breaks down, as the man confronts his own past while relating the story, the look in Lalla's eyes recalling a moment that perhaps sent him on his downward trajectory. It a lovely touch, suggesting that there is a human reality behind the magical fantasy, but there's just not quite enough there to totally carry this off.

That's because for all Phelan's dressing it up, the plot is quite simple. In Act 1, Lalla-Roukh, the daughter of the Moghul emperor Aurangzeb, has been promised in marriage to the King of Bukhara. It's Lord Baskir's job to get Lalla there intacta, which means keeping her away from the troublesome minstrel that has been following the entourage and beguiling the promised wife of the king. The Act is filled with entertaining songs, none of which are necessary to drive any drama forward. That would have been done in the dialogue/recitative in the original and is taken up by the homeless book-finder narrator here.

In Act 2 Phelan reduces the back-and-forth over Lalla's constant struggle with Baskir to get out of her obligation to marry the king, leaving more room for the music and some marvellously choreographed scenes to entertain in their own right, entertainment surely being the entire point of the opera. It slips neatly then to resolution when the king is revealed to be the singer, who followed the travelling retinue in disguise to be sure that Lalla loved him as a person. It might have been a surprise only to anyone who hadn't seen a similar ruse employed a few hours earlier in the same theatre in Alma Deutscher's Cinderella.

The star of the evening in what was definitely the star opera of the Festival, Gabrielle Philiponet sang the role of Lalla-Roukh wonderfully. Having a native French singer helped, but there is a particular kind of enunciation and expression required for this kind of opéra-comique and Philiponet was perfect for this, helping retain much of the original character of Félicien David's opera. The noted Irish actor Lorcan Cranitch also fulfilled the other essential element of the opera in his turn as the narrator in an excellent performance that helped establish a certain wistful storyteller tone on the work that made it feel like something important and meaningful, while preventing it from sounding like an old-fashioned period opera. It was a superb cast all round, Pablo Bemsch excellent as the singer (rather than old-fashioned 'minstrel') Nourreddin, Ben McAteer playing up the role of the hapless Baskir wonderfully, and Niamh O’Sullivan providing fine support as Lalla's lady-in-waiting, Mirza.

Conducted by Steven White, the orchestral performance in the pit was, as ever, a delight, the music filling the lovely acoustics of the O'Reilly Theatre. The chorus did Andrew Synott proud in the ensemble and supporting roles, as well as in performance for the director, who certainly didn't make it easy for them, finding something entertaining for them all to do throughout rather than just standing around. All this was vital to the whole tone of the work, keeping everything entertaining and engaging, never for a moment giving you pause other than to laugh out loud. For me, it was a perfect end to the festival, the kind of ending that will guarantee anticipation for three more fascinating and rarely performed works already announced for the 72nd Wexford Festival 'Women & War' programme.

Links: Wexford Festival Opera

Rossini - La Cenerentola (Dublin, 2019)

Gioachino Rossini - La Cenerentola

Irish National Opera, 2019

Fergus Sheil, Orpha Phelan, Tara Erraught, Andrew Owens, Rachel Croash, Niamh O'Sullivan, Graeme Danby, Riccardo Novaro, David Oštrek

Bord Gáis Energy Theatre - 11 November 2019

Rossini's La Cenerentola departs from the familiar traditional Cinderella story in a number of key areas. There's no there's no fairy godmother, no magic pumpkin coach and mice coachmen, there's not even a lost slipper, but in no respect could you say that Rossini's opera lacks magic. To state the obvious it's in Rossini's music as well as in the fairy-tale romance, in the tale's moral of kindness and goodness being its own reward. Rossini unquestionably makes this come to life, but that doesn't mean it can't have a helping hand in the stage directions.

Since the moral is timeless, there's no reason however why La Cenerentola needs to be done in fairy-tale period costume. It could work just as well in an adventurous modern day setting (as in Opera North's entertaining production), although perhaps not so much in a "real-world" setting. Orpha Phelan, directing her first production for Irish National Opera, decides to embrace the fairy-tale side of the work, but she does so in a way that plays to the opera and the story's inner life, which is its belief in the power of imagination.

It's by no means an original idea to set a fairy-tale inside a book, but it's a nice effect that works with the nature of Cinderella, the fold-out house set of the first Act attesting to the simplicity and poverty of the situation Cinderella finds herself in; a servant to Don Magnifico and her demanding step-sisters, who despite the grandness of the family name and their pretensions have hit upon hard times. Cinderella however, when she gets a moment's peace from the ministrations imposed on her, finds her escape in her books, sitting in a corner reading classic tales of romance and adventure.

Orpha Phelan uses the opera's overture to give the audience a glimpse into the reasons for her retreating into a dream world by showing us something of the tragic circumstances of her personal background. As I said when I saw the Wexford Festival Opera's production of another Rossini short opera two weeks ago - L'Inganno Felice (featuring another unjustly mistreated young woman in similar circumstances), Rossini's overtures are just too good to waste and Phelan directs a lovely opening that also takes in scenes and figures from all the classic fairy tales that Cinderella escapes into; Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots.

It's a theme that is expanded on further and impressively when the cardboard book is wheeled off the stage and the Prince's palace is shown to be filled with oversize books of classic stories, many with an Irish connection, from Yeats, Wilde and Joyce to Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Perrault, from Treasure Island to Clara Louise Burnham's The Right Princess. If you thought that the set for Act I was a little basic, it was just so that set designer Nicky Shaw could make an even greater impression in Act II, the glorious set showing that the opera in this production is all about the power of storytelling and the imagination, with characters escaping from the books and running around the stage as Cinderella's ability to realise her dream falls into place.

Cinderella's dream however is not necessarily to marry a prince but to be loved and respected and to be able to feel part of a family, no matter how cruel and mean her own are to her. It's the dream of a better world where kindness and fairness is rewarded or is its own reward. It's not a deep philosophy, a little bit utopian and not entirely realistic about human nature (although to be fair, the Magnificos show no desire to reform or accept Cenerentola as one of their own), but we can dream. What would we do if we couldn't dream or didn't have books (and opera) to make it a better place?

You can't ask for more from La Cenerentola than to get that idea across and it's done wonderfully in the INO production, not least in Fergus Shiels' wonderful elegant run through Rossini's delightful, beautiful score. The stage direction of the performances was superb, never overplaying or exaggerating the comedy, but allowing the essential human side of it to come through. As Cenerentola, Tara Erraught is back home again this season after debuting the INO's inaugural production (The Marriage of Figaro) and we're fortunate to get the opportunity to see her over here when she is in demand in Europe and New York. She handles the demands of a Rossini mezzo-soprano exceptionally well.

It's also a pleasure to welcome American tenor Andrew Owens to Dublin. He is outstanding as the Prince, Don Ramiro, a perfect voice for Rossini and bel canto, lovely Italianate phrasing with real steel and volume behind those top notes. For all the challenges faced by the principals, La Cenerentola is an ensemble piece really with rapid delivery, comic timing and interaction that places demands on Rachel Croash and Niamh O'Sullivan as Clorinde and Thisbe, Graeme Danby as Don Magnifico and particularly Riccardo Novaro as Don Ramiro's squire Dandini who gets a bit above himself and has to take all the attentions of the step sisters. That's hard work. In the context of the literary nature of the production it was also a nice idea to have David Oštrek as the tutor/philosopher Alidoro acting as a kind of author/narrator, directing or scripting the outcome. There's no question that the whole affair of INO's La Cenerentola was very well directed towards a successful outcome.

Links: Irish National Opera