Opera
Glasgow's Theatre Royal
Rodney Milnes
Scottish Opera's greatest single asset must be the acoustically and architecturally ideal Theatre Royal, Glasgow; in which the company is just concluding its second season, An opera house holding 1,559 in which you can perform The Mastersingers and The Rape of Lucretia equally effectively means you cannot go far wrong. There are further assets in Alexander Gibson, Artistic Director and king of the Scottish musical world, and Peter Hemmings, the General Administrator. I guess that running Scottish Opera represents the summit of their ambitions. Thus they do not have to waste time proving that they are naturals to take over the Met. next season, and can simply get on with the job of serving their community, which is what running an opera company is about, The Director of Productions is the immensely talented David Pountney and, with such designers as David Fielding, Marcia Bjornson and Ralph Koltai on the books, the Scots have made a canny sweep of much that is best and brightest on the stage side of British opera today.
There is also a refreshing get-up-and-go feeling about the management. They moved into the converted Theatre Royal eighteen months ago, almost before it was finished (and certainly before it was paid for--the debts are as alarming as public and corporate goodwill is warm). While other companies mumble about lotteries, Scottish Opera launched one with Daily Record razzmatazz. One draw took place before a Rangers/Celtic match with numbers pulled out of the hat by the respective captains; Billy Connelly has done a draw; the next will be presided over by Tommy Docherty while the company is on tour in Manchester (I somehow can't see Sir Claus Moser . . . well, perhaps 1 can). The lottery makes them about £2,000 a month, which may be a pea in the bucket but it does show willing. I won £10 on the first draw.
The leaflet for the season is also a refreshingly unsolemn affair, with dry-witty paperback blurbs on the operas and, appropriately enough, a good deal about how much money you gain if you subscribe (`Now try this sum ... the saving . . £90'). More simply a top-price seat of £7:50 is reduced to £4.50 if you take a full season's subscription. The only disadvantage of the stagione/subscription system is that in a fortnight you will only see one opera; it is no use foreigners dropping into Glasgow for a few days to sample the repertory—for that you would have to follow the company on tour. The Main advantage, apart from the obvious one of performance standard, is that the subscribers—they account for an average 75 per cent of audiences—who are tempted by Mastersingers or Bohenre find themselves with seats for Confessions of a Justified Sinner as well. Now no good Scot will chuck away a ticket unless the night is exceptionally cold and wet, which means that this dour-sounding new opera, not to mention others just off the beaten track, played to around 80 per cent capacity (Lucretia notched up 90 per cent). The standard rep is sold out; students and pensioners can get into anything that isn't for £1. The OAPs' queue for Lucretia started to form ninety minutes before the box-office opened on a bitterly cold day. Not even a sociologist could explain that.
This season's rep has included four Pountney productions: The Magic Flute, an entrancing and eclectic mixture of Noh,
early Victorian pantomime, karate and Glaswegian camp, which I enjoyed hugely against my better judgment ; the peculiar but brilliant Macbeth noticed from the Edinburgh Festival; a straight but lovinglY detailed Masters-ingers exquisitely designed by Bjornson and superbly played by the Scottish National Orchestra under Gibson; and, currently, the outstanding fent/fa shared with the Welsh National and already highly praised in these pages. Peter Ebert, a former Director of Productions, has revived his Fidelio, Bohenie and mid-twentiethcentury Don Pasquale. Anthony Besch's genial Merry Widow has been televised, and his production of The Rape of Lucretia \was the occasion of my latest visit.
Most people take the Christian framework of this work at a superficial level and baulk at some vivid imagery in Ronald Duncan's libretto. I cannot pretend to understand this bewildering masterpiece but I'm grateful to Besch's thoughtful staging for pointing my nose in some of the right directions. John Stoddart's costuming of the commentators as mediaeval mystics--surelY the right visual reference—and Robert Tear's almost fanatical Male Chorus set up some distinctly uncomfortable vibrations, suggesting that (he man is not too distant 3 relative to Peter Quint. 'Go thou and sin,' he seemed to be saying to Tarquinius, 'that and the audience may enjoy condemning thee and wallowing in the outcome.' Like'. wise, I have never understood the violent objections to the controversial coda: it pro; vides no pat answers, seeks to ask some 131 the questions, and gives a context to the action, which is as economic as it is multifaceted—that at least no one can take away from Duncan. A niggling cut in Act Tw° did not help one of the facets. The work was more beautifully PlaYed and conducted than I have ever heard it bY Roderick Brydon and his Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The cast, headed by Patricia Kern's wonderfully eloquent Lucretia, seemed faultless. If you want to see it this year, you will have to go to Lodz or Warsaw in May. Those who want to sample Scottish Opera without travelling to Glasgow once a fortnight (though there are London subscribers who do) should note that Mastersingers, Jenufa, Flute and Macbeth can be seen repertory at Edinburgh between 26 Agri; and 14 May, and variously at Newcastle an Manchester in the spring. Affastersingers touring with the Glasgow cast of Norman Bailey, Linda Esther Gray and Thornas Hemsley. Katya Kabanova has returned to the Coliseum and, as if it were possible, is better than ever, mainly because Charles Mackerras surpasses even his form in an extra: ordinarily tender and compassionate read ing of the score. Elizabeth Connell's smulgIYsmirking Kabanicha is riveting, and Avo June's Katya is vocally and verbally pr°,: jected with crystal clarity. John BlatchleY production remains a triumph—don't Miss it.
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