Puccini’s La Boheme & Verdi’s Aida

Tags

Aida, Ellen Kent Productions, La Boheme, Olga Perrier, Opera House, Puccini, Verdi

Puccini’s La Boheme & Verdi’s Aida

Opera House, Manchester

Ellen Kent Productions

1 and 2 March 2014

The Rose of Love will bloom, no matter how unwelcome the earth.

That’s what makes the operas such an apt pairing.

Although Puccini and Verdi vary in their approach to the art, each opera is a masterpiece; and these productions from Ellen Kent are splendid.

After playing Musetta, the femme flirt in La Boheme, Olga Perrier took the lead in Aida.  Among a stellar cast, she was outstanding.  The costumes and sets give you a real sense of period.

On a rough (some would say rash) generalisation, you could say that Puccini is more inclined to tug at the heart strings whereas Verdi’s scores have more dramatic force.  Personally, I much prefer Verdi: his scores are like witnessing a storm at sea.  Thunder and lightning, excitement.  In this regard, Peter Conrad’s book on Verdi and Wagner is well worth a read.

La Boheme and Aida throughout the UK, further details can be found here.

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Otello

Tags

Otello, Verdi

Otello

Music by Giuseppe Verdi

Opera North

The Lowry, 13 March 2013

The beautiful thing about Otello is that it is rousing and moving, yet also (if you’re being a mite honest with yourself) joyously diabolical.

It is a malicious game, gleefully played.

Another pleasing factor is the dramatic irony of seeing an actor acting, which is to say deceiving others.  Part of us always seems to root for Iago, whose near-relations, virtual brothers almost, include Richard the Third and Coriolanus: warriors who cannot cope with peacetime, who find a glee in intrigue and malicious machinations.  Well, what do you do?  You make mischief, that’s what.

Far gone, that’s where Iago’s head is at.  He is a nihilist and no mistake.

Verdi’s opera is the equal of  Shakespeare’s play, and this production is serenely copacetic.

Future tour dates of Otello can be seen here.