George Frideric Handel’s Xerxes

Xerxes

Music by George Frideric Handel

RNCM Theatre, 25 March 2012

From left to right: Aimee Toshney (Romilda), Sophie Goldrick (Arsamene), Hanna-Liisa Kirchin (Xerxes) and Lucilla Graham (Amastre). Photo: Victoria Haydn

This is a gorgeous production of Handel’s little-known opera about the loves of the ancient Persian king.

In real life he seems to have been – if Herodotus is to be believed – ever so slightly off his rocker.  Here he’s your typical romantic hero, though perhaps more headstrong and arrogant than most.

The music is wonderful – all very jolly and jaunty, in Handel’s best style – and the three principal characters – Xerxes (Hanna-Liisa Kirchin), Arsamene (Sophie Goldrick) and Romilda (Aimee Toshney) – are given enough arias to make their feelings known.  It’s an absolute pleasure, all the singing.  Sets and costumes were resplendent, especially the dresses; they were like shimmering sunlit-clouds: fluffy, frothy and floating.

And as a cherry on top there was Eleanor Garside’s performance as Atalante, a girl who lands on her feet at the end, free to flirt another day.  Garside makes of Atalante a fine comic creation, a young woman who treats love as an amusing game, and you don’t get many of those in your average opera.  Off she goes fluttering her fan, indefatigable.

Xerxes is showing again tonight and then later in the month on the 29 and 31 March, further details are here.

Opera North’s Giulio Cesare

Giulio Cesare

Music by George Frideric Handel

Opera North

The Lowry, 1 March 2012

James Laing as Tolomeo. Photo credit: Tristram Kenton

No phallic symbolism of consequence evident in this production, not unless you count the odd pyramid.

Cleopatra does wield a sword late on, but her deadliest weapons are an A-line dress and a pair of silvery strap-on shoes.  She’s got a bit of a vintage vibe going on.  (That emphasis on Cleopatra’s nose?  It’s overblown.)  Anyway, their effect on Caesar is lethal; his heart soon bites the dust. 

Only opera gives you those epiphanic moments where sound and vision meld perfectly.  Where music and singing on the one hand, together with the costumes and sets, the acting and not forgetting either the drama itself, all come together to transport you to another place.  Within Giulio Cesare there were myriad moments like these.

Of the performances I especially liked Sarah Tynan’s Cleopatra, fell in love with her almost, while James Laing as Tolomeo made a fine villain or a Sadean hero, if you’d prefer.  The set itself was a star in this production, for with a twist and a turn the battlements of a palace were transformed into its interior chambers and even into a prison cell.  And the music sculptured the drama with something approaching perfection.

This is the second of two new productions by Opera North, both set in the Ancient World and both featuring ‘strong women’ (a tautological construct if ever there was one), tour dates are here.

Handel’s Messiah by Salford Choral Society

Messiah
By George Frideric Handel
Salford Choral Society
Royal Northern College of Music, 18 December 2010

Credit: Salford Choral Society

This was a terrific production of Handel’s great oratorio, a devout meditation on the life and fate of Jesus Christ.

The handsome Matthew Hamilton ably conducted the choir and musicians and he allowed the orator/narrators to voice their pieces, which they did admirably.

It was a pleasant evening all round and none shirked their duties: everyone stood for the Hallelujah Chorus, following the example of King George II on the 23rd day of March, in the year of Our Lord 1743.

Further details of the Salford Choral Society can be found here.