Opera
Gawain (Covent Garden) Romeo et Juliette (Barbican)
Strong impressions
Michael Tanner
The Royal Opera's revival of Birtwistle's Gawain got under way four days later than planned, but began very splendidly. Unfortunately something tech- nical went wrong after 20 minutes, and the house manager came forward to announce that there would be a short pause while things were put right. We stayed where we were, incomprehensible announcements it was very much like a Tube delay — were made and Act I resumed with Robert Tear as King Arthur singing 'It's nothing, noth- ing, nothing', to predictable sniggers. Since the interval didn't come till 9.20, I left then, to catch the train. Covent Garden's persis- tent accident proneness means that provin- cials continue to get a rough deal. The other thing that was wrong and could easily have been righted was that the surtitles were faint to the point of illegibility, unless one strained very hard; it was worse than having none at all.
So my report is provisional. The staging remains impressive, and the cast, all new to their roles apart from John Tomlinson's Green Knight, was preferable to the origi- nal one, indeed one can't imagine its being improved. That surtitles are required cer- tainly isn't their fault. It is a necessary fea- ture of the work that the orchestra erupts At Art 2000, 100 art galleries will be exhibiting work by contemporary artists, including John Hoyland's 'Roaming the Land' (at Gallery Fine). The 12th London Contemporary Art Fair, Britain's largest art fair, is supported by The Spectator and runs until 23 January at the Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, London Nl.
with vehement violence almost throughout, making the singers and their words seem an obbligato element in a work whose almost entire expressive content is given from the pit and by the staging. There is a disjunction between what is being sung and the chthon- ic sounds of the orchestra which made me feel, at times, that I would prefer a `Gawain Suite' to the opera itself, if only to put David Harsent's libretto into abeyance. It is both gauche and knowing, aware of itself as dealing with archetypal subject matter, in fact like Tippett without his zany charm. Mythic characters aren't conscious of their status, and if they begin to ruminate in abstract terms they lose their entitlement to either individuality or universality. That is one reason why I can't agree with a critical colleague who finds Gawain comparable in achievement to Wagner. He also claims that it can mean 'anything and everything', which one would have thought would dis- qualify it from serving any useful purpose. It is Wagner's circumscription of the possi- bilities of meaning in his myths that helps to constitute his greatness. Still, whatever its limitations, Gawain, even half of it, makes a strong impression.
Two evenings later Berlioz's dramatic symphony Romeo et Juliette made a far stronger one, since it contains some of its composers very greatest music. And only the last quarter of an hour, in which the Montagues and Capulets reluctantly bury the hatchet at Friar Lawrence's hectoring behest, is a serious let-down. Apart from anything else, two warring families who finally come together in grief over the loss of a young member of each would not do so to the rousing cymbal-accompanied for- tissimo which Berlioz opportunistically con- trives for them, but rather in sombre quietness. `Amin pour toujours!' is psycho- logically quite the wrong way for the work to end. Its greatness lies in the parts that used to be regularly played as a very satis- fying three-part suite, perhaps extended to four. There is no way in which the curious text of Deschamps can seem anything other than redundantly obvious in its explana- tions; and it fails to explain what actually is unintelligible without independent knowl- edge of the plot, primarily the scene in the tomb of the Capulets, which is purely mimetic, with squawks from the awakening Julietto and hectic embracings, etc., set to some of Berlioz's most bizarre and intrigu- ing virtuosities of orchestration, but not by itself musically coherent.
It would be a pity if the complete work were to be regarded as the only acceptable thing to perform, though very much in the temper of our time. It will never be other than a rarity, partly because it makes such exorbitant demands in terms of the forces involved, partly because, as with so many of Berlioz's works which without question contain passages of great genius, it is too uneven to bear listening to all of often. The leading Berliozians seem to me to be doing him a disservice in not admitting to his unevenness, because that leads them to insist on the integrity of works which mani- festly lack it. Who wants to hear even something as beautiful as the mezzo item `Premiers transports' anything like as often as the almost intolerably lovely Romeo alone or the love scene?
Actually a performance as superb as the one at the Barbican, happily scheduled to be released as a CD set by Philips, only makes the point clearer. The only respect in which I could have wished it better was the very opening, the furious fugato which depicts the fighting of the two families, and which lacked incisiveness. Otherwise Colin Davis, with the LSO in stupendous form, showed an identification with the composer which is becoming almost eerie. The two wonderful sections I mentioned above were taken in one long line each, the climaxes in them built inevitably, and the love scene in particular was wholly overwhelming. A highlights disc would be in place.
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