THERE’S a treat for opera lovers when Opera North comes to Salford Quays next week with three productions.
Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, conducted by Andrew Parrott, can be seen on Tuesday and Friday and will be sung in English. A new production of Massenet’s Werther is on Wednesday and Saturday and is distinguished by the appearance of Alice Coote as Charlotte opposite Paul Nilon’s Werther. This is sung in French with English sur-titles and Richard Farnes conducts.
Miss Coote, who has her roots in Frodsham, received much encouragement from Opera North during her early days, and she now returns as a fully-established singer on the international stage.
In presenting Werther, Opera North continues its policy of showing less often staged operas, and they really go for deuce with their third piece, Janacek’s The Adventures of Mr Broucek, virtually unseen in Britain for a quarter of a century. This comes in two parts, The Excursion of Mr Broucek to the Moon, and The Excursion of Mr Broucek to the 15th century. They are based on novels by Svatopluk Cech which had great success towards the end of the 19th century. Janacek asked permission of the Cech family to set the novels, and they agreed providing it resulted in an “artistic work.” It is a satire which took Janacek much trouble. He tried innumerable librettists, always a bad sign, and it was nearly a decade in composition. Eventually it was his first opera to be produced outside Brno, appearing in Prague in 1920 and first seen in the United Kingdom in 1978 given by Prague National Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival. Broucek (Mr Beetle) is a pub landlord, who, in a drunken stupour dreams he has found an idyllic life on the Moon. The people there live on nectar and the scent of flowers, but eventually he realises that he has rediscovered the Art for Arts sake elitists he detested on earth, and wakes up to find himself squashed in a barrel. In Act 2, he dreams he’s in 1420 during the time of Hussite glory. He is arrested as a spy, because of his strange 19th century speech, but is released only to be caught up in fighting for the Hussites. His boasts of bravery are disbelieved and he is condemned to death in a burning barrel. He awakes to find that he is still safely in his barrel, with no flames, another wry comment on contemporary Moravian life. The operas’ strengths lie in the music. Dramatically there are weaknesses in both, but Janacek’s use of Hussite chorales, some original, some newly composed, gives the 15th century tale great interest, and the music on the Moon is inventive. The piece, directed by John Fulijames, is sung in English with surtitles (perhaps wisely) and the fine John Graham-Hall sings Mr Broucek. This is a good opportunity for Janacek lovers to hear some of his rarely heard music on Thursday evening. Maurice Andre is the conductor.
