Past Production Reviews
5The supporting characters in the parties were splendid, with extreme and provocative behavior helping to set the context. Gastone indulged in rude gestures while Flora represented the more cynical, businesslike side of the system. The usually problematic gypsy and toreadors ballets were brilliant solved, making perfect sense in the context of the party: a parade of fetishes as the onlookers grow ever more aroused.
Mirrors and bright lights in the party scenes contrast with the tranquillity of a country garden in early Act II and the bleak feeling of a cemetery where Violetta digs her own grave in Act III. With designs ranging from fin de siècle Paris to the glitter of modern Las Vegas, Daniel Kramer in his first production as artistic director (his Tristan and Isolde predated that appointment) has deliberately disconnected the story from its customary milieu, adding to the disorientation between Violetta’s demi-monde and high society.
The tenor Peter Hoare was very impressive in the hugely demanding part of Orpheus the man (as opposed to Orpheus the myth and Orpheus the hero, also played well by Daniel Norman and Matthew Smith respectively) but the whole cast coped magnificently with the outlandish score.
This is the last of the four operas based on the Orpheus myth which the ENO had the wonderfully crazy idea of bringing together for the last few months of this year and on the whole the quartet has been a success. It began with Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice which is full of great music and tells effectively the basic story of Orpheus travelling to Hades to try to bring back his beloved Eurydice after her untimely death.
