{"id":6347,"date":"2021-04-12T19:41:02","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T18:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=6347"},"modified":"2021-04-16T18:44:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T17:44:12","slug":"shakespeare-re-shaped-opera-up-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=6347","title":{"rendered":"Shakespeare Re-shaped \u2013 Opera Up Close"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second of a pair of coffee concerts from Opera Up Close<\/em> \u2013at a time when live audiences are not permitted \u2013 this 30 minute programme explores the links between Shakespeare and opera. It also offers a few entertaining, sometimes moving thoughts about spring, new life and hope for the future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We start with tenor Joseph Doody and soprano Claire Wild as Nannetta and Fenton duetting a Falstaff<\/em> extract from their own homes with Kelvin Lim on piano also in his own home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is followed by Claire Wild, smilingly cross legged on her sofa bringing oodles of youthful excitement to Gounod\u2019s take on Juliet \u2013 the change of key and mood for the middle section sensitively negotiated before an exuberant accelerando as Gounod brings her back to the original melody.<\/p>\n

Another fine performance is actor Lara Steward perched on a window sill doing Juliet\u2019s \u201cGallop apace\u201d speech in British Sign Language. It is eloquent, passionate, sparkily bright-eyed and is quite a treat to see BSL silently allowed to speak for itself rather than being an added-on accompaniment to conventionally spoken dialogue.<\/p>\n

Other high spots include Joseph Doody searching for Sylvia with Schubert and, back to Falstaff, the rich-voiced baritone Rodney Earl Clarke being outrageous by 21st<\/sup> century standards as Ford. \u201cOnly a fool wastes his time with a woman\u201d and \u201cHow will I make her suffer?\u201d he sings \u2013 his top notes finding all the clarity and resonance of a massive bell.<\/p>\n

What an inspired idea, then to follow that with Isabella\u2019s horrified commentary on male domination in Measure for Measure<\/em>. Kat Rose-Martin\u2019s warm, Northern voice gets the revulsion and disbelief perfectly and somehow makes it seem totally topical. I liked her monologue poem too in which, as an actor, she bewails the compliance of so many women in Shakespeare. \u201cStop the swooning and start to sway\u201d she advises them. It\u2019s wryly witty but the points it makes are deadly serious.<\/p>\n

It makes sense to finish with an upbeat\u00a0 trio (Finzi\u2019s It was a Lover and his Lass<\/em>) and even though the syncing is slightly off here so that the three singers are not always quite together, it didn\u2019t spoil my enjoyment of this thoughtful little concert.<\/p>\n

Susan Elkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second of a pair of coffee concerts from Opera Up Close \u2013at a time when live audiences are not permitted \u2013 this 30 minute programme explores the links between Shakespeare and opera. It also offers a few entertaining, sometimes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6351,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6347\/revisions\/6351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}