OPERA
Memory lane
JOHN HIGGINS
Both London's opera houses have been tak- ing us by the hand down Memory Lane over the past week or so. At the Coliseum Dennis Arundell's famous production of The Flying Dutchman has returned showing its age a little. The red and white Arsenal dresses worn by Senta and her fellow spinners have dulled, the casket of jewels shines less bril- liantly and the phantom vessel itself totters a bit, as though affected by creeping senility, when making that first appearance in the rocky Norwegian bay.
The Arundel! Dutchman dates from 1958. Covent Garden's Boris Goduttov, originally produced by Peter Brook although his name has long since been dropped from the pro- gramme, is ten years its senior. Age again has been gnawing away at the edges. The dazzle of the Coronation Scene has dimmed, the colours of the once handsome Wakhe- vitch backdrop for Chateau Mnishek have curdled, and in the final scene a faint smell of mothballs arises from the furs of the boyars as though this particular branch of the Duma did not meet in session all that often.
But, the economy minded will point out, these productions were built to last. And, constructed on solid conventional lines with- out fripperies or eccentricities of any kind, lasted they have. Their concessions are to melodrama alone and their age shows most of all in the encouragement they give to an extravagance of gesture fast disappearing on the opera stage.
It is difficult to believe that we are going to see again a Boris as wild and forbidding as that of Christoff. Christoff leaves no doubts about his terror when he thinks the murdered child of Uglich has come to accuse him; Robert Newton or Pierre Brasseur in their prime could not have pulled any more stops out. The performance hovers on the brink of ham and always manages to avoid going over the top. The voice itself of course is there to save him. It has always had the cut and quality which demands the name of master and eliminates laughter. When Chris- toff begins his great monologue on the cares of state, Dostig ya vishey ylacti'. he leaves no doubts about the reasons why he is there at the top. Here is an interpretation to be col- lected now while it is still with us.
The Rimsky version is used in this revival and the pack of the scenes has been shuffled yet again so that both the Sandomir episodes are included. There can be no objection to this when the handsome and powerfully sung Marina of Yvonne Minton is on view.
Opposite her William McAlpine is the best Dimitri London has heard for some time; he even manages with some aplomb the ludi- crous horseback entry complete with troops —McAlpine's fusiliers? Gennady Rozhdest- vensky avoids the glitter and grandeur that Karajan gives the score at Salzburg; in its place he produces a quieter and more lyrical reading, which is considerably closer to the tone of Pushkin's original play.
At the Coliseum Raimund Herincx's Dutchman is as haggard as Christoff's Boris. The shoulders are broad, but not broad enough for the curse laid on them and Mr Herincx brings sackfuls of doom with him the moment he sets foot on shore. Again like Christoff he knows that he is appearing in an old fashioned death and thunder production and relishes the fact. On the first night there was lack of beauty in the voice----`Aclz, ohne Weib, ohne Kind bin icie should have the gentle swell of the sea after the opening storm has calmed, and it was too choppy. Possibly Raimund Herincx, in good voice for the rest of the evening, was trying to put some vigour into a performance lacking just this quality.
The orchestra had one of its careless nights with the brass off-colour and all too fre- quently off tune as well. The conductor, Bryan Balkwill, gave no feeling of the duel between land and sea which runs through the score and displayed little sympathy for the opera. Judith Turner, the new Senta, got the naïveté of Daland's daughter but missed her spirituality and selflessness. There were better debuts from Hugh Beresford, a sturdy and Nordic looking Erik, and Robin Donald. a boyish Steersman. Generally, though, memories were prefer- able to reality in this revival.
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