Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 29 January 2013

THIS contribution to the Britten centenary celebrations may have been only a semi-staged performance of the opera, but it was a memorable one.

THE latest collaboration between the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Scottish Opera revived Olivia Fuchs’ 2005 production for the Royal Opera House, and gave the cast an opportunity to work with the acclaimed director.

Countertenor Tom Verney as Oberon (© KK Dundas and RCS)

Hers is an (in)famously austere production, a contrast made all the more vivid for me by having recently watched a recording of a very colourful French production. To judge the full impact of her work, it would be necessary to see the stage production reserved for Glasgow and Edinburgh, but this semi-staged performance gave something of its flavour, all austere black costumes (the white-suited Oberon excepted) and cool blue lighting.

The logistics of moving the full set up here for one show apparently proved too complex, but the trade-off we enjoyed was hearing Britten’s wonderful score with greater clarity and presence from having the orchestra, conducted by Timothy Dean, on stage behind the singers and a few simple props – a purple armchair, a couple of crates and a hanging rope, later augmented by some smaller chairs.

Britten’s magical sound world reflected the shift in emphasis which he and Peter Pears initiated in converting Shakespeare’s drama for the opera. The focus here is more on the fairy world than the human one, a realm musically contrasted with the pastiche of Italian opera created for the Rude Mechanicals and their hilarious performance of Pyramus and Thisbe.

The young cast coped well with the challenges of the opera. Countertenor Tom Verney was impressive as Oberon, while aerial artist Jami Reid-Quarrell was a vibrant, hyperactive Puck. A mixed chorus of boys and girls stood in for the boy trebles as Tytania’s band of fairy helpers, the Queen herself was ably sung by Elinor Rolfe Johnson, as were the roles of the four mortals – Catriona Morison as Hermia, Anush Hovhannisyan as Helena, Andreas Backlund as Lysander and Daniel O’Connor as Demetrius.

Peter Quince’s band of rustics all revelled in their comic opportunities, led by Andrew McTaggart as Bottom, and their performance before Theseus (Dominic Barberi) and Hippolyta (Elfa Dröfn Stefándóttir) was a gem.

Given that the piece was not written in the 19th century and thus likely to put off the generally conservative Inverness audience, the turn-out was both respectable and appreciative; with luck it will be enough to encourage the RCS and Scottish Opera to include Eden Court in future collaborations.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2013

Links

• Scottish Opera
• Royal Conservatoire of Scotland