With Deborah Warner and Ivor Bolton Britten’s spell continues on the Teatro Real | Culture | EUROtoday

Deborah Warner was 9 years outdated when she attended a efficiency of the historic manufacturing of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Peter Brook, the staging with which she revolutionized the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1970. She attributes her theatrical vocation to that have – as she defined to EL PAÍS final Monday – but in addition a paradox: regardless of being a acknowledged specialist within the English playwright, she had by no means staged this comedy written between 1595 and 1596.

The stage director has discovered her first method to Dream within the good operatic adaptation that Benjamin Britten composed in 1960. The Teatro Real premiered this new manufacturing final Tuesday the tenth with overwhelming success, according to Warner’s two earlier productions on the Madrid coliseum: Billy Budd (2017) y Peter Grimes (2021). The imprint of Peter Brook’s theatrical philosophy is clear within the proposal, each within the reinterpretation of the stage nudity of the empty area as within the incorporation of circus components, akin to swings.

The easy set up that evokes the forest – the place Britten decides to begin the opera after eliminating the primary act of the comedy – radiates magic from the start. The abundance of kid extras and younger dancers contributes to this, but in addition the enticing costumes by Luis Filipe Carvalho, which includes lighting. Its design permits us to obviously distinguish the 4 worlds that come collectively within the plot: the fairy kingdom, the 2 {couples} in love, the rustics – right here transformed into employees – and the Athenian sovereigns.

Christof Hetzer’s set design is diminished to some components, such because the platform that on the finish is deployed to function a stage within the courtroom of Athens. Others have a extra symbolic worth, such because the inverted and suspended tree that means the alteration of the pure order within the forest. Everything is supported by the exact lighting of Urs Schönebaum. But this stage environment makes full sense within the glorious route of Warner’s actors, which clearly outlines every of the worlds and their misunderstandings, with out giving up a sure ethical ambiguity.

It is feasible that the second act is considerably dense within the arc of its second scene. The symmetry of the primary, however, works extra successfully, and, above all, the third regains its pulse after the break with the loopy illustration of the rustics, which provoked laughter from the viewers. Less convincing is the characterization of the elf Puck, break up between the actor Daniel Abelson and the aerial dancer Juan Leiba to reinforce the acrobatic element that Brook already launched.

In any case, this manufacturing of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Britten is located within the wake of basic productions akin to these by Peter Hall (Glyndebourne, 1981) and Robert Carsen (Aix-en-Provence, 1991), additionally seen on the Liceu in Barcelona. It overcomes the rigidity of the earlier proposal at Pier Luigi Pizzi’s Teatro Real and can be conceptually extra full than the glowing studying by Laurent Pelly introduced on the Maestranza in Seville a couple of weeks in the past.

In addition to the appearing stage, the vocal high quality of the solid was unquestionable. The large winner of the night time was countertenor Iestyn Davies, a specialist within the function of Oberon for greater than a decade. The singer himself has mirrored on the character in a revealing article in The Arts Deskthe place he discusses the legacy of Alfred Deller and the problem of “doing something with very little.” Davies maintained his lovely golden tone even within the decrease passages and turned the primary act aria I do know a financial institution —Britten’s tribute to Purcell— in one of many moments of the night, whereas he drew a disturbing profile of the fairy king.

Her associate as fairy queen, Tytania, was soprano Liv Redpath, a rising singer who debuted the character at Glyndebourne in 2023. The American shined with beautiful coloraturas within the second act aria Be type and courteous to this gentlemanwhich she performs after falling in love with the donkey-headed Bottom, with out giving up a touch of irony. Another of the winners of the night time was the bass Clive Bayley within the function of the weaver, the place he changed the initially introduced Simon Keenlyside, one of many nice references of the character, attributable to sickness. Bayley composed a enjoyable and vocally strong Bottom in his a number of inflections and use of falsetto, though he stood out above all on the appearing stage.

The rustic ensemble labored very successfully and confirmed outstanding versatility within the hilarious illustration of Pyramus and Thisbe. The Flute of tenor Ru Charlesworth stood out particularly, who embodied a sensational Thisbe on this good parody by Britten of his detested Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti. The quartet of lovers was additionally very convincing, each of their solo performances and within the duets, with regulars from Britten’s earlier productions directed by Warner on the Teatro Real – akin to Jacques Imbrailo and Sam Furness – together with the mezzo Simone McIntosh and soprano Jacquelyn Wagner. The ensemble reached its finest second within the lovely canonical reconciliation quartet of the third act, And I’ve discovered Demetrius like a jewel.

The luxurious solid was accomplished within the closing scene on the courtroom of Athens with baritone Thomas Oliemans as strong Theseus and the wonderful mezzo-soprano Christine Rice as Hippolyta, who already performed Hermia on the Teatro Real in 2006. The ORCAM Little Singers choir, ready by Ana González, additionally contributed to this stage in considered one of their finest performances regardless of the issue of an element that compelled the younger singers to be positioned within the pit through the first two acts. They had been joined by the 4 soloists who intervene as Titania’s fairies.

But if Warner was one of many pillars of this spherical manufacturing, the opposite was the musical director Ivor Bolton, who signed one other memorable studying by Britten from the pit. The Englishman had directed at the very least one manufacturing of this opera—at La Monnaie in Brussels greater than twenty years in the past—and fascinated once more on the head of the composer’s ingenious orchestration, together with his attribute show of harp, celesta, harpsichord, xylophone or glockenspiel. His management of the discourse between the completely different sound worlds and the fluidity of the interludes had been exemplary.

He additionally stood out for his intuition to offer full theatrical that means to each element of a rating filled with passages of maximum issue, which beneath his baton appeared to emerge with improvised naturalness. It shined particularly within the third act, from the start that evokes the morning readability of summer time days on the rope to the ultimate crescendo after Puck’s final phrases. A manufacturing whose spell stays hours after the efficiency.