A year of triumphs and the promise of more to come...
ONE OF the most compelling operas of 2019 was minimalist composer Philip Glass’s Akhenaten which was given a sumptuous staging for English National Opera by Phelim Mcdermott at the start of the year.
The Egyptian Pharaoh banned the age-old religion of multiple gods in favour of monotheism, and eventually was murdered by his priests.the dazzling gold set and costumes by designer Tom
Pye were inspired by the treasures of Tutankhamen, which are now on exhibition in London.
The boy Pharaoh briefly succeeded Akhenaten before himself being assassinated.
Counter tenor Anthony Roth Costanzo gave a virtuoso performance in the title role, on stage throughout the four-hour evening, with a fine supporting cast and ENO’S orchestra under conductor Karen Kamensek.
When the opera world’s current superstars, German tenor Jonas Kaufmann and Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, teamed up for Verdi’s La Forza del Destino at the Royal Opera re-sale tickets were rumoured to have changed hands at more than £3,000.
The two singers were in magnificent form forverdi’s heady brew of tragedy, melodrama and comedy, played out against a background of war and famine.
Opera Holland Park was on a roll for its 2019 summer season. Cilea’s L’arlesiana, the tale of a peasant youth who kills himself over betrayed love, was a satisfying tear-jerker. a favourite double bill of contrasting one acters was wolf-ferrari’s light as candy floss Susanna’s Secret where Clare Presland’s lively Susanna tries to hide her cigarette addiction from her pompous anti-smoker husband; played in tandem with the tender symbolist tale of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta in which a princess born blind is prevented by her father from knowing of the existence of sight. Lustrous-voiced soprano Natalya Romaniw sang the title role.
Outside London, country house festivals proliferated.
The Grange Festival in Hampshire picked a winner in The Marriage of Figaro with a quick-witted Susanna in Ellie Laugharne pitted against Toby Girling’s abusive Count.
Glyndebourne’s school room-based revival of Handel’s Rinaldo was a joyful romp, while Garsington Opera triumphed by unearthing Smetana’s The Bartered Bride for the Festival’s 30th anniversary year with Paul Curran’s zingy production of the Czech composer’s comedy about village match-making.
Meanwhile, welsh National Opera scored a hit with David Pountney’s staging of Prokofiev’s saga War And Peace. Thunderous cannons and scenes of burning Moscow added to the almost cinematic staging.