OPERA
Ladies' night
Hugh Macpherson
Der Rosenhavalier is a woman's opera. That is not to say that it is a mish-mash of domestic devotion and virtue rewarded but an evocation of the gross unfairness of life which says that men may age and women may not. Baron Ochs can be vulgar and over-ripe but Viennese society quite accepts that he have a beautiful young bride like Sophie and the final twist is that Octavian is a ' breeches ' role so that the Marschalin relinquishes, before our eyes, not one young woman but two. (Before Sally Vincent, Germaine Greer et al attack, brandishing their bras, I advise them to see the opera and state their case when they are fifty.) At one point in the current revival at Covent Garden I thought the production had gone awry. It was the moment when Octavian, who so recently has been pleading devotion to the older woman, kisses the hand of the Marschalin as she makes her sad final exit then turns 'instantly with a face wreathed in smiles to the new young lover Sophie. Would it not have been better if a little sadness had been displayed? On reflection, not at all. It not the young who take love affairs so deeply but the old for whom there are not many left. That is why the Marschalin gets up during the night to stop the clocks. Woman's opera it may be but it is equally poignant for men, since the only males they can identify with are the gross figure of Ochs or the obsequious Faninal. They therefore become voyeurs of what man — or perhaps life — does to woman.
As the Marschalin Sena Jurinac is visually perfect and if by the end of the evening the voice tires a little, which is well understandable at this stage in her career, the benefits of experience and the essential repose in her voice are there for us all to enjoy. The role of Sophie is in the pert and delectable hands of Lucia Pop!) whose voice matches her ebullient personality — perhaps a little too ebullient at the presentation of the rose. The trio of ladies is made up by the utterly ravishing Brigitte Fassbaender, who glows with youth and has a lovely mezzo voice that only sharpens occasionally above the stave in the first act.
Michael Langdon is, as ever, a magnificent Ochs — he sings his hundredth performance of the role for which he celebrated, this week — and the minor roles are uniformly strongly Portrayed and, in particular, that fine artist Derek Hammond-Stroud had an eminently successful Garden debut as Faninal.
At the Coliseum there is a revival of Colin Graham's highly successful production of The Tales of Hoffman: a splendid evening, with some interesting newcomers. Josephine Barstow confirms the impression that I had of her when she appeared in (domeno. Her voice seems to lie far back in her throat, producing a sense of restriction which is confounded by some ringing top notes.
David Hillman is an ardent Hoffman but something must be done about the famous duet at the beginning of Act 3. That the singers and dancers can participate in the Venetian orgy with such Wagnerian hollering from the two ladies in the pit says much for their artistic devotion. However, now that it has an even stronger singing team, I imagine this will remain one of the Coliseum's strongest attractions.
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