Sam Furness as Nerone and Kitty Whately as Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea | Copyright Craig Fuller

MOZART – L’incoronazione di Poppea

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One of the earliest operas to be founded on historical subject matter, L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643) is often considered Monteverdi’s masterpiece – though musicologists inform us that other composers were involved in its creation. Mid-17^th-century sources being neither complete nor consistent, anyone staging the piece has many decisions to make – especially of the musical kind.

In this production involving 14 instrumentalists from the specialist ensemble La Nuova Musica under David Bates, the latter brought motivation to the score’s diverse moods, with the individual singers regularly doing Monteverdi equivalent justice.

But from a visual point of view Walter Sutcliffe’s staging was less certain. Referencing the portico of a small Roman temple, or perhaps even of the grand Greek facade of The Grange itself, David Bausor’s unit set felt limiting. Proving anything but easy to follow, the hyperactive surtitles moved manically along the frieze of the set’s colonnade. Arguing in the prologue about their respective power over human behaviour, goddesses Fortune, Virtue, and Love largely watched proceedings from an upper terrace.

But confusingly, the singers representing them also took other active roles doubling as human characters: thus Kitty Whately’s Fortune also appeared as an articulate Poppea, Anna Bonitatibus’  Virtue brought grandeur to her authoritative Ottavia, while in addition to Love, Vanessa Waldhart also sang a touchingly animated Drusilla, though at one point – puzzlingly – without any change of costume between the two.

Yet if the drama lacked a clear narrative overview, several individual performances nevertheless conveyed strong identities. Among those standing out were Jonathan Lemalu’s sonorous Seneca – a sombre and introspective presence within Nero’s largely frivolous Imperial court; Christopher Lowrey’s understandably morose Ottone; and especially tenor Sam Furness’ endlessly malign Nero – though his was a role originally conceived for a soprano castrato.

Smaller parts leaving a solid impression included Fiona Kimm’s elderly nurse, Gwilym Bowen’s boozed-up Lucano, and Frances Gregory’s business-like Arnalta. The end result was that Monteverdi’s opera came over a good deal more vividly as a musical rather than a dramatic experience.

Andrew Manea as Scarpia with Francesca Tiburzi as Tosca in Tosca | Copyright Craig Fuller

PUCCINI – Tosca

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In a good performance Tosca’s grip on an audience’s attention never falters. This was certainly the case at The Grange, where Christopher Luscombe’s production was extraordinary in its insight: director and cast sought out and underlined details that illuminated the increasingly violent action the characters were caught up in.

Bolstering this approach were two outstanding sets by Simon Higlett in which the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle and an interior at Palazzo Farnese combined realism with striking atmosphere. If there was a slight drop in impact in the last act, it was because the two-level set for the ramparts of Castel Sant’Angelo was unduly cumbersome.

Lighting designer Mark Jonathan contributed generously to the show’s impact, sometimes by the simple expedient of suddenly dropping the level of lighting, notably when Scarpia and his henchmen strode brazenly into the Roman church, inducing widespread terror. The central roles, too, displayed inner tensions, concentrating the audience’s focus onto the unstoppable flow of the character-driven plot.

Founded on a mellow, flexible soprano, Francesca Tiburzi’s Tosca revealed how the character’s vulnerability and self-dramatizing – Tosca being, after all, a literal diva – became the weakness by which Andrew Manea’s laid-back Scarpia could turn her jealousy to his advantage; his tensile baritone emphasised the unscrupulous police chief’s unwavering arrogance.

Physically embodying the politically committed (but reckless) painter to the life, tenor Andrés Presno hit all of Cavaradossi’s notes fair and square, though at times with a discomforting edge to his tone. Angelotti and the Sacristan received striking solidity from Dan D’Souza and Darren Jeffery.

Another securely dramatic contribution emanated from the pit, where the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was on blistering form under the outstanding conductor Francesco Cilluffo, who registered even the smallest gesture in Puccini’s writing while giving to the score an overall sense of sweep that saw it hurtling headlong to its shocking conclusion.

The sterling contribution of the Festival’s Chorus and Children’s Chorus, meanwhile, ensured an apocalyptic finish to the overwhelming Te Deum that closed the first act.  

Adam Temple-Smith as Tom Rakewell and chorus in The Rake's Progress | Copyright: Craig Fuller​

STRAVINSKY – The Rake’s Progress

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Inspired by a Los Angeles exhibition of William Hogarth’s paintings, Stravinsky’s moral fable registered with both wit and menace in director/designer Antony McDonald’s staging, though it was another 18^th-century English artist – Thomas Gainsborough – whose pictures lay behind the often exquisite visuals. Since many of the score’s quotations or references to previous operas are from 18^th -century works, what one saw proved a strong match for what one heard.  

McDonald and colleagues Peter Mumford (lighting) and Lucy Burge (movement) used elegance and lightness to outline the central character’s ever downwards trajectory, the combination of various visual elements coalescing perfectly to suggest the piece’s tragi-comic ambiguity. The Grange had assembled an ideal cast, one fitting neatly on a vocal level into the dimensions of the festival’s small but perfectly formed theatre.

Feckless young Tom Rakewell was played with a certain doomed innocence by Adam Temple-Smith, his pleasing tenor rising above all difficulties with nonchalant ease; like the rest of the cast, his delivery of the poetic W. H. Auden/Chester Kallman text was impeccable.

Rising steadily in profile over the last few years, soprano Alexandra Oomens gave what was arguably her finest performance yet as Tom’s faithful Anne Trulove, her tone consistently appealing and her technical skills faultless in a part that is challengingly exposed vocally; added to that, she offered a heartfelt dramatic account of the role that made it an indelible realisation.

Bass-baritone Michael Mofidian took on Nick Shadow, perfectly judging the level of his devilish nature in a personification seasoned with sufficient humour for the charming side of his demonic character to register.

Adding to the evening’s exceptional quality were Rosie Aldridge’s Baba the Turk, combining warmth with panache; Catherine Wyn-Rogers’ highly sympathetic Mother Goose; Darren Jeffery’s sage Father Trulove; and John Graham-Hall’s auctioneer Sellem, delivered with an expertise deriving from the tenor’s substantial stage experience. Positioned at the forefront of the audience’s attention, the Grange Festival’s Chorus embodied various different groups with scene-stealing skill.

Once again in the pit, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra were rock-solid advocates for Stravinsky’s artful neo-classicism, which sounded as witty and engaging as one could hope for under the immaculate control of conductor Tom Primrose.

thegrangefestival.co.uk