Welcome to a new year of electronic journalism. Let's note the date. First of the first of the first. Once in a century treat there for the numerologists amongst us.
Ross and I saw the New Year in with a definite bang. Not quite what you are thinking, I'm afraid. It has been a long time since we saw the New Year in quite that fashion. No the bang was pyrotechnic with a public display of fireworks in the Docklands area at around 7pm. We particularly liked the wall of flame which rose up from the roof of Canary Wharf as we passed by underneath.
Lest you are concerned, let me reassure you that we did actually managed an early
evening shag on the table in Ross's living room. Quite like old times really.
By 10pm we were happily in bed together. We chatted and cuddled and dozed and were just about awake enough to hear the rest of the fireworks in the distance as the midnight hour came and went.
Last year it was 19 March before I went to see my first opera of the year, Mozart's Magic Flute. This year, Ross and I travelled on the first day of the year to Covent Garden for Rossini's La Cenerentola.
Covent Garden have taken all sorts of stick over the past few years so let me say how well they catered for Ross in his wheelchair. Staff were very solicitous and gave good clear information. The House's solution to wheelchair spaces was very elegant. In the area where we were placed, there were six armchairs. One was removed to allow space for Ross's wheelchair. I sat in the armchair next to him. Presumably, if they don't sell any wheelchair spaces, all six chairs remain in place.
La Cenerentola was a good choice for the Festive season. It was well sung and well played.
Ross liked Sonia Ganassi as La Cenerentola. I wasn't so sure. I think I preferred Anne Sophie von Otter and Olga Borodina who I have heard sing the role previously. Ganassi has all the notes but did not project the way the other two divas did. Or maybe what I'm saying is that she didn't mug to the house. Her portrayal was much more contained and less of the pert minx that is more usual. And that was in keeping with the more serious tone of the production.
I preferred Juan Diego Flórez as Don Ramiro. He has a very unforced and even projection of Rossini's florid line. Not a big voice but it is well focussed and very nimble for getting round all of the coloratura. I would really like to hear him sing again.
However, the best voice of the night was that of Simone Alaimo as Don Magnifico. What a presence! What a bass voice for a primo buffo! He got his mouth round the patter songs, even projected the words in amongst the torrent of notes. And he gave us a fully rounded character. Not evil but very nasty and potentially violent as the aristocrat fallen on hard times, desperate to marry his daughters off to wealth. Nicole Tibbels as Clorinda and Leah-Marian Jones as Tisbe were both very good too.
The production had a lot going for it. It found a believable domestic violence lurking in among the action and also within the libretto and the music. Or in other words, the violence was not done to Rossini's work. I watched Mark Elder conducting. He began each bar with an upbeat rather than plunging his baton down digging into the rhythm. The effect was very springy but also as though he were continually throwing punches. And this bubbling energy that might turn to real violence at any moment was palpable on stage.
However, I really was not sure that the updating of the action to Italy in the 1950s (this seems to be a bit of a vogue at present) did anything. Yes, it gave us some nice stage pictures but it took away the fairy tale element wherein Cinderella might really become a princess. After all, when Rossini wrote the piece for the fashionable carnival season in Rome in 1817, Italy was still divided into a variety of dukedoms and kingdoms. It was still possible (though unlikely) to be called out of poverty to riches.
But I carp. It was a good evening out and I sincerely hope the rest of the year's artistic outings prove to be as merit worthy.
