penelopesimpson

Hi Geoff: A good question and one I really can't answer. I am a big Kaufmann fan. I love his voice which resonates with emotion, he is a great actor and has wonderful charisma. However, I was disappointed yesterday and found myself asking why it was necessary to make the announcement. In my world you were either sick or you were not. My friend and I had lunch in the Hamlyn Hall and were discussing this in the interval. I felt the announcment was unnecessary as it had put a dampener on things. A bit like the restaurant saying 'That chicken you're about to eat may be a bit naff but we'd killed and cooked the thing so if it makes you unwell, at least you were warned.' The man at the next table entered the debate on the other side saying (a tad patronisingly) that singers value their voice (who knew?) and its important to them that the audience to know that they are not at their best. A hard call. To say somebody playing Florestan looked unwell is stating the obvious and they had really gone to town with Jonas who appeared to have acquired dreadlocks during his incarceration. He looked pale but who wouldn't after a century under ground. For me there was some obvious loss of vitality about his performance (again, could be the role) but I didn't feel he was on top form. But frankly I would have sympathised if he'd taken one look at the set and caught the next plane out. So, the jury is out on your question. The Hall was being set up for an expensive patrons gala dinner which he was due to attend. Maybe he wanted a get out - we will never know. I would love to hear your impressions. I agree with you about Ms. Davidsen but acting is important for my enjoyment. If I want simply the voice, then I will see them in concert. I thought she was completely wooden but the set left little room for interpretation and even less for any emotion. During rehearsals, was there really nobody with enough nous to say that the Orwellian set for Act 2 drained the production of any emotion? That the wonderful moment of Leonore and Florestan being united was completely lost? Essential, surely to Fidelio. Do let me know your thoughts.

Good question, Bridiem. As I said before, stage effects are subjective. I liked the minimalism of Act 1 whereas my companion didn’t. But you simply cannot sing Blessed is the light when the stage is pitch black. Similarly, it’s only from reading the Telegraph that I gather the wives were passed severed heads - who knew? And I was in the Stalls. Act 2 is so awful it is funny. There is, perhaps, a case for bringing Fidelio into modern times as Johnathan Millar didwith Rigoletto. But tonight we had contemporary chorus viewing a man in nineteenth century togs. He could have been a Tracy Emin exhibit at Tate Modern for all the relevance it had. Then we had this weird video running as a backdrop with people looking serious and munching crisps. Then in comes Leonora striding around and, despite the neon lighting, apparently unable to recognise her husband. i can’t share the rapture for Davidsen, maybe because by this time I was so jaundiced I just couldn’t appreciate anything. She is fantastic and the voice is incredible and she is young. But for me it’s all volume and she really can’t act for toffee. We get all these achingly trendy philosophical designers these days which, in the main, is a good thing. But they need someone with their feet on the ground who is not a paid-up luvvie to say No,that doesn’t make sense. God knows how much money was spent onstage sets tonight, but no attention was paid to letting Leonore look half decent in a difficult role. For heavy handedness I could hardly believe what I was seeing when Marcelino attempted to unbutton Fidelio’s flies. Well, I am out of pocket and out of humour tonight. It was a seriously below par performance. I would have expected more from Pappano.

Thanks for thoughts a John. There was a lot of giggling throughout the audience so it wasn’t only me. There were a lot of German guests in the audience and the ones I spoke to were appalled. I have just checked out the producers website which contains greT deal of psychobabble and much play on the word deconstruction. I always groan watching Masterchef when the contestants present us with a deconstructed trifle And I feel the same about this bloke. I like new productions, revel in modernity, but today was pseuds corner. The Telegraph review seems concerned about the staging but they are probably more generous to Lise Davidsen. Yes, she was terrific but Zi prefer More emotional voices with degrees of subtlety. Might be worth going to the cinema to have a look but Kaufmann did look unwell so he may pull out but honestly that shouldn’t make much difference.

He needn’t have bothered. It started badly. Man in suit ‘Unfortunately Mr. Jonas Kaufman has been feeling unwell but he insists on soldiering on.’ Groan from audience. It got a lot worse. First Act a bit ho-hum. I liked the minimalist set but unfortunately the fluorescent square of light which framed the stage throughout proved heavy on the eyes as things went on. Some sublime singing early on from Marcelino and her father et al and wonderful work from orchestra and chorus. Lise Davidsen is a force of nature with a voice that could reach Norway and incredible pureness and clarity. Essentially it is a Wagnerian voice which may or may not appeal. She is tall and statuesque which made her convincing as Fidelio but less so as Leonore. Her dramatic powers are not equal to her voice and she spent much of the performance stomping around the stage, apparently unsure what to do with her hands or feet. There were moments of pure farce that prompted laughter from the stalls when she twice revealed herself as a woman by unbinding the bandages from her breasts. Whoever thought of this manoeuvre should be shot and the person who thought it was a good idea to have her struggling out of her trousers on stage to reveal a cotton dress that looked like a peg bag, should be boiled in oil. Nobody could complete this move with any dignity and for a large lady who dwarfed all around her to be subjected to this was ridiculous. And what of Mr. Kaufmamnn? Well, having already cast a pall over the audience by informing us he was unwell, when the curtain went up on Act 2 we understood why. We were in a high-ceilinged Georgian drawing room whose only decoration was a pedimented door. The chorus, wearing modern suits and ties and cocktail dresses were seated on two rows of chairs. We had been catapulted to the twentieth century and were interrupting a Politburo meeting. Centre stage was a large brown cow pat (we were later told this was a rock) on which a man who subsequently revealed himself as Jonas Kaufmann was chained. He groaned a bit and rattled his shackles, his rags making it clear that he had been imprisoned for more than a century. One was reminded of Victorian peep-shows when the audience paid sixpence to see the Elephant Man. He sung a bit. It was okay, but it could have been anyone. We didn’t blame him, the set was so ridiculous that it was hard not to laugh. Most of 'us didn’t hear much anyway because we were fixated on the video running as a backdrop. Clearly it had symbolism but nobody I spoke to had any idea what. There were Jezza and Emily Thornberry lookalikes and a bloke who could have been Graham Norton’s brother. They looked anguished as they drank bottled water and ate crisps. No, me neither. Fidelio feeds bread and water to the poor sap on the rock without, apparently any recognition of him as her husband. Florestan seems equally baffled, perturbed even, by this stranger and at no point is there any hint of a joyful reunion. As pretty much the whole theme of Fidelio is lovers parted, this seems a curious omission. Still, after a bit more sliding around on the cow pat, and a couple of gun shots, a few soldiers arrive and it’s the moment of reckoning which is celebrated by Leonore taking her trousers off. Right at the end we get them embracing but due to the height differential this was anything but romantic. Maybe I don’t get out enough but this is the worst opera I have seen. It was certainly the most expensive. Okay, aesthetics are always subjective but the basics need to be right. Beethoven made much of the central theme of darkness into light so how any designer mounting Fidelio can have prisoners singing about the joys of daylight when they are in pitch darkness is a mystery. Similarly, it would have been the work of a moment to have Leonore standing on the floor whilst Florestan was on the rock so that looked more like lovers than mother and son. These details do matter if the whole drama is to convince. I think all new productions of ballet and opera should be put through an idiots test as it seems to me that the designers missed the basics that make Fidelio work. I cannot imagine that the critics are going to be kind. The audience reaction was lukewarm although Davidsen got applause. I would say A for effort for her but this was not a performance that moved the audience. A lot of money and effort (South West Trains on a Sunday) and I wish I’d stayed home.

Excitement mounting for tomorrow. I do hope Elvis (Jonas!) is in the building.....

It really says nothing, although I’m surprised at 20% which seems a low figure. The missing word is ALL. A general 20% simply means totalling everything up so the statement is honest but disingenuous. The real test will come when Anna Netrebko’s Tosca goes on General Sale. If they’ve sanctioned a Fidelio situation I will be pursuing the Chief Exec in the media again. He has been warned.

I was thinking Ed Watson, Matthew Ball, Natalia Osipova and Steven Macrae. I also saw Yuhui Choe take Osipova’s role and she was a revelation. The pas de deux with Watson and Ball I possibly my favourite piece of dance ever. They were so moving together

Woolf Works please

Hairs on back of neck stuff, Quintus. Thanks for posting. Do you know where and when? I saw Yo-Yo Ma perform it about twenty years ago and it was amazing but, here's the thing, utterly different. Nobody gets the emotion in to it like Du Pre.

This is great fun IvyLin. Like Sim, though, I don’t think Ms Markle falls into the same category, I could think of loads but tragic wouldn’t be one of them!

I would like to think Kobborg could do choreography for RB. We have had too many lacklustre efforts in recent years and he is a real and proven talent.

Lovely clip. Thanks Fiona.

Well, this is an odd position for me, defending Nunez who has never been a favourite. I have loved her in Don Q, criticised her Juliet and applauded her Mitzi Caspar, but she has never moved me - until last night. All the usual Nunez characteristics were there; assured technique, confident elegant dancing but having learned that Osipova was indisposed, I was concerned that one of Marianela’s great strengths, her sunny commanding stage presence, would hamper her interpretation. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. She was completely believable, deeply moving and utterly convincing, including the Osipova-like way she threw herself into the pas de deux. For me, it was a wonderful, entrancing performance that swept me along. As to the others, well Ball just gets better and better. I don’t especially warm to the partnership with Hayward and wonderful though she was, I felt the height difference with both Ball and Clarke somewhat spoiled the line. Quite why this should be so when she has always looked great with Ed Watson who is also tall, I have no idea. Reece was terrific but this is a role that hangs or falls on the aloof careless passion of Onegin which especially suited Clarke. He was a great partner but for me he was pretty much invisible whenever Nunez was onstage. A lovely evening with an appreciative audience.

The night belonged to Nunez. Utterly superb. My favourite role for her. Magnificent Marianella.

My point exactly. It is many things - for me wonderfully colourful, amazingly poignant but fast moving and an exceptionally enjoyable evening which it would be hard not to enjoy. But if it doesn’t do it for you, then it doesn’t, but I simply cannot see how it could ever qualify as cheap and dreary. Puzzled.

Really? I saw it on first night when Sonya Yoncheva had to pull out, and it was absolutely sparkling. Yes, had seen this production first time round and liked it, but this time was fabulous. Obviously papered as there were people there from choirs and music groups who had been offered best available for £15. We had a wonderful post Christmas treat which the audience completely got behind which made it extra special. Not to mention Francesca Hayward with Cesar Corrales sitting infront of us with Matthew Ball adjacent. if you don’t like the Production, well then you don’t but cheap and dreary? Really? One of the most colourful andprobably most expensive sets in the ROH repertoire.

Don't you always with anything I post? It is so predictable. A moderator complaining that a poster cannot post news of a major cast change - well, you just get more and more extraordinary. I have been absolutely clear that 'artistes cannot help illness.' There can be nothing offensive there unless you go looking for reasons to be offended.

She will be back in time for the filmed production. Hmm. I phoned the Box Office and they said they were only told this morning.

Really annoying as had booked especially to see her after a glorious Norma. Nor keen on the replacement who I thought was weak and under-powered in the last production. I know people cannot help illness but tickets are so expensive now, it is hard not to be upset

On a discussion website? Really?

Hooray somebody else who didn't mind admitting Twyla Tharp was.....

Ed Watson back at ROH

Rojo and Polunin in Marguerite and Armand Falling under the spell of Shylrakov - wish he would guest more Ed Watson dancing as the Indian for Arthur Pita First seeing Francesca Hayward in Rhapsody and thinking ‘oh my goodness’ or words to that effect Ditto Corrales as an officer in Mayerling - wow The pas de deux between Ed Watson and Matthew Ball in Woof Works - incredibly moving Hayward/Corrales/Ball in a transformational Romeo andJuliet Hayward IS Manon Low Points: Too many flops - Strapless, Anastasia, Frankenstein, the World War 1 thing. All for new work but KOH needs to keep a closer eye and intervene more Twyla Tharp - like sliced bread she was probably ground breaking once but things have moved on The over-hyped, over priced new build programme to Open Up ROH to something unidentifiable, coupled with hypocrisy of senior management as they hike ticket prices and restrict availability The furniture in the Vilar/Floral/Champagne Hall. Hideous and inappropriate The loss of Cojocaru and Kobborg - shouldn’t have happened The way the loss of Cojocaru and Kobborg was handled. Management should have been big enough to give the the sort of departure that they and their fans merited The casual way Ed Watson has seemingly gone from being a busy Principal to invisible. And the fact that nobody mentions it And lastly - the price of a glass of champagne! Where are they going with this?

Thank you Maryroses, and sorry everyone for using wrong thread.

Sense of proportion needed here, I think. Or, to use another cliche, reds under the bed, perhaps?