Wednesday 16 February 2011

Orlando - Handel'd with Care

Scottish Opera perform a modernisation of Handel’s Orlando at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow

            Putting on one of Handel’s Operas will always create controversy between those impresarios pledging unfaltering fidelity to the original text and those staring in the face of a patronage acclimatised to the Italian Romantic repertoire which is the mainstay of the contemporary opera house. Rossini, Verdi, Puccini. They need little modernisation as they deliver in and of themselves exactly what an audience expects from the Opera. How though, can an early 18th century work written for an audience that was expected to pay only cosmetic attention to the stage capture the attention of today? Needless to say some work has to be done whether one stays true to the original reading of the text or otherwise.
           Having attended a private seminar given by director, Harry Fehr, on his vision for the piece, it was with great expectation that I attended Scottish Opera’s contemporisation of Orlando. The “swords-and-sorcery” tale of a great soldier in Charlemagne's army driven mad by unrequited love only to be restored to sanity by a wizard’s spell has been reimagined in a World War II setting. Orlando is now a RAF hero, and the sorcerer is a talented psychologist who cures him with shock treatment - controversial! Unfortunately the adaptation, while often compelling, sometimes challenges the audience to credibly reintegrate libretto with setting, for example when Orlando pledges to slay dragons, monsters and madmen to prove his love to Angelica. The naturalistic themes synonymous with Handel’s Operas also find poor substitution in the clinical hospital. Dorinda sings: “How delightful it is in these woods! To watch the harmless play of goats and deer…” but the woods are a small garden with potted plants, and there are no playful goats or deer to be seen.
            While the acting is good on all counts (particularly Sally Silver’s heartfelt and emotionally torn performance of Dorinda) and there are some truly memorable aria moments, particularly in the third act, these merits are counterbalanced by some serious directorial blunders in the execution of the piece. The most unforgivable of these is at the very climax of the piece when Orlando is finally cured of his madness and declares himself a new man. Handel’s music suddenly rings out in all the colours of a glorious celebration, but far from finding our hero lauded and applauded at centre stage, where he belongs, he starts singing his Aria on his knees somewhere over to the left, and continues to distract us from his lovely voice by getting dressed throughout it. Patrons and critics will debate the relative merits and demerits of any modern rendering of an opera, but botching the climatic scene is unambiguously Fehr’s failing.
Still, Scottish Opera’s new setting holds novelty enough to make it worth seeing, each making their own value judgement as to the success of the new setting. Handel’s beautiful, plush, score provides much to thrill the ear, although some may feel that the two countertenor voices of the principle males joining the two soprano female leads perhaps creates too little variation in the vocal range.  Thankfully towards the end “Dr.” Zoroastro’s lower voice plays a more prominent role and is a welcome change of character.