Opera Review
THE FOX
THE BEAR
Director/Producer Frederic Wake-Walker
Musical director Nicholas Collon
Music performed by the Aurora Orchestra
The Village Underground
24-26th April
A review by Maddy Ryle for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Mahogany Opera is a new and very young company, having been established in 2003 by the now 25 year-old Frederic Wake Walker. The company has been enjoying a burgeoning reputation for their original revivals of lesser-known works. Russian Tales was performed earlier this month in the slightly more well-established surroundings of Aldeburgh, but now it has moved to the Village Underground in Shoreditch, a space which until now had never witnessed opera within its walls. An achingly trendy East End urban space, the Village Underground is a beautiful restored Victorian warehouse, all exposed brickwork with a ten-metre high ceiling (the two graffitied tube carriages which you might have spotted from Great Eastern Street form part of their studio space for new artists). So it seems like the right kind of location for a new company trying to push the boundaries of the public perception of opera. In Russian Tales two short pieces – Stravinsky’s burlesque, The Fox (Renard) and Walton’s ‘extravaganza’ The Bear, based on Chekhov’s play – are combined into one performance. The Fox tells the tale of the foolish Cock who is rescued from the jaws of the cunning Fox by the Cat and the Goat. The piece is performed as a peasant folktale at the start of the production by four servants of Madame Popova’s from The Bear, which follows immediately afterwards, and which gives the story of Smirnov (the bear in question) intruding upon Madame Popova’s bereavement for her late, unfaithful husband to ask her to repay his unresolved debts. In a classic gender battle, the two nearly annihilate each other in a duel before declaring their love for one another. For this production Mahogany Opera have taken some inspiration from the Contructivist movement of early 20th Century Russia, particularly Meyerhold’s Biomechanics method which used stylised acting to portray a futuristic vision of ‘man as machine’. The minimal set, the urban setting of the Village Underground’s high, raw walls, and the way the Aurora Orchestra are arranged on a balcony overlooking the players in a detached reversal of form, all add to the sensation that the parochial world of folklore and hierarchy which are depicted in the two tales has become anachronistic in the new age of mechanics and economic efficiency. But while the visual and psychological effects are an achievement, the performance itself, of The Fox particularly, left something to be desired. The acoustics of a Victorian warehouse were not able to capture effectively the complexities of Stravinsky’s score, flattening the sound of the flutes and percussion and giving the impression at times of a rather jangled confusion of noise. This was not helped by the fact that some of the singers, the Cat in particular (played by Stefan Holmström), did not have a powerful enough voice to cut through the orchestra and deliver the narrative. That said, John McMunn and Benjamin Segal as the Cock and the Fox respectively gave amusing and suitably pantomimic performances and had the vocal power to carry them off. Overall though, The Fox felt somewhat crude (beyond its obvious intentions as a burlesque) and its inclusion as part of a broader narrative with the second story was clumsy and underdeveloped. The Bear was more successful. As a simpler piece of music it had a lot more clarity in the stifled acoustics, and Catherine Hopper was particularly fantastic as Madame Popova. With an extremely powerful and expressive voice, and a face and physical grace and self-presence to match, she was certainly a show-stealer. The dynamic between her and Smirnov (Alex Ashworth) was by turns tense and humourous, and Walton’s oversimplified script is a witty pastiche of other operatic works which forced many wry smiles and chortles. The enthusiasm and dedication of the young team behind Russian Tales, from the Aurora Orchestra to the cast to the excellent costume designers, cannot be doubted. Unfortunately the combination of these two pieces didn’t work dramatically, and the setting was great visually but not aurally. However, there was also much to enjoy and some striking performances – and it was an undoubtedly interesting experience witnessing opera being performed in a converted Shoreditch warehouse.
Tickets available through Aldeburgh Music box office The Village Underground www.villageunderground.co.uk Performances at 6pm and 9pm
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