Golda’s balcony at the shaw…

Tonight I took the Tall Lady to the theatre.  The Shaw is an off-West End Theatre located between Euston and St Pancras stations.  Its a  400 seat one level semi-circular affair, obviously a renovation on what was once a corporate/lecture hall/conference type venue.  They seem to be hosting short run high class cabaret/one person show affairs (Elaine Stritch, Ute Lemper, Chita Rivera), in between somewhat questionable material (Boy George, Gloria Gaynor, Amateur productions of The Marriage of Figaro).  At the moment they are hosting ‘Golda’s Balcony’, a 2003 play by William Gibson in which a single actress (Tovah Feldshuh created the role on Broadway [and did almost 500 performances!] and is appearing in the London Run) portrays Israeli Prime-Minister Golda Meir (and half the cabinet!) looking back on the Yom Kippur war of 1973, the near destruction of Israel, and the nuclear war which was almost started.

 

From what I’ve read. Gibson first wrote a piece called ‘Golda’ in 1977, a multi-character piece with one actor per part, with Anne Bancroft as Meir.  Unsatisfied, he tackled it again, reconceiving it as a one-woman show.  Given it had a 500 performance run at the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway, one can assume it was a wise decision.  

The set is a cheap looking series of ancient (temple?) walls with Hebraic writing, and a screen onto which relevant images and footage can be projected.  Feldshuh playes Meir at all stages of her life, in essentially one costume. It is a magical performance and each of the various accolades and awards thrown in Feldshuh’s direction is utterly deserved.  The writing is careful without sounding clinical.  It jumps deftly from timeframe to timeframe without sounding forced.

One thing the Tall Lady and I noticed was what at first appeared to people talking incessantly and loudly.  THEN we realised it was the sound/lighting operator and the stage manager who are above the audience (why?) and VERY AUDIBLE.  In a one woman show with lots of quiet moments this seems like a potentially disastrous geographical choice.  Regardless, the audience received Feldshuh with a standing ovation and repeated curtain calls. I will be seeing the Press Night  again on Tuesday (did I mention I am promoting the show?) and on Wednesday I expect to read a seriesof raves.  At least I hope to.  Too often in London do I see strong work be punished by the critics for being what they are.  In my book you don’t pour scorn on a blue wall for being blue.  But what do I know, I’m just someone who loves theatre and goes to each event wanting it to be good, unlike some London critics who thrill at the chance to write those scathing  diatribes which can effectively end careers.  If I ever become one of those critics, I want one of you to hit me upside the head…

Rosenkavalier at ENO…

OK…last night was my first Rosenkavalier, kind of.  I saw a production in Melbourne in 1999 (?) and left after act one because Anke Hoeppner’s Octavian was so unforgiveably badly sung I couldn’t bear it. Everything above an F wobbled out of control, and in a role which is mostly written above F, this is not a good thing. THEN In Berlin I had a ticket to see it at the Deutsche Oper and got the start times confused and missed act one.  A month later I had a ticket to see it at the Komische Oper and left after act II as the staging was so ‘Eurotrashy’ I couldn’t take it seriously.  So having seen acts I and III once, act II twice, this was my first time seeing the whole thing, in order, on the same night, in the same theatre.

What relief that last night The Boyfriend and I got a uniformally well sung performance staged more or less traditionally.  The Coliseum on St Martin’s Lane was packed to the rafters (this was closing night) and within a few bars we knew Maestro Gardner knew what he was doing.  The introduction to this opera is one of the more frank depictions of good sex ever put on (sheet music) paper and when the curtain comes up on the Feldmarschallin and her 17 year old lover Octavian in post-coital bliss, its difficult not to be a little tickled. That Octavian is played by a woman makes it all the more delicious, particularly when the staging is as sexually frank as director/genius David McVicar has decided to make it.  The production was set firmly in the second half of the 18th century but curiously, the Feldmarschallin’s palace, indeed all three of the opera’s locations, appeared in sometimes considerable disrepair, possibly war damage.  This confused me at times but I let it pass.  

As Octavian, Sarah Connolly both sang and acted the way we wish they would all the time, but never do.  With her tall lean shape and clean clear mezzo-soprano, she is an Octavian sent from the Gods.  She is also a brilliant comic when needed, particularly in the scenes where Octavian disguises himself as a young girl (girl plays boy who plays girl…).  

As the Feldmarschallin, Janice Watson managed to make the character both unlikeable and sympathetic. You knew straight away that Octavian is not this woman’s first affair (her husband seems permanently away hunting) and he certainly isn’t going to be her last.  Her concerns about ageing and becoming ‘the old Marschallin’ are understandeable but when one thinks that EVERYONE goes through this, and most of us without palaces and footsoldiers, its hard to feel sympathy.  But when she gives up Octavian because she knows she can’t compete with a 15 year old, one’s heart breaks a little for her.  

As that 15 yr old (Sophie), Sarah Tynan managed to sing this savagely tricky part VERY well while actually managing to act like a 15 year old, ie stupid and hormonally explosive.  The Presentation of the Rose scene was a delight, and she managed the famous ‘Wie himmlich…’ phrase with its B-flats in what sounded like 2 breaths (I have heard other sopranos take as many as five).  Its such a mean role, and dramatically rather thankless.  Not as mean or thankless as the ‘villain’ Ochs.  It is supposedly the longest role in any opera, and at no point does the singer/actor get anything approaching a beautiful vocal line.  Its all bluster and boorishness.  What it IS is a brilliant acting role, and John Tomlinson was stunning.  All singers received huge applause, but his was exceptional, they adore him at ENO.  I have tickets to his Boris Gudonov later in the year and my expectations are high.  

Rosenkavalier is a long opera.  We went into the theatre at 1730 and left at 2150. The second half of act II and the first half of act III could do with an edit.  Operas about the sex lives of the Viennese aristocracy shouldn’t really interest me given my disinterest and general condemning of the aristocracy/upper classes in general, but with music like this, they almost come across as real people.  And the decision to play it ‘traditionally’, ie not update it to the 1960s in NYC is wise. This is a piece which is ABOUT social manners and the (undeserved) respects paid the aristocracy. 18th and 19th century work for this, any later and it simply makes no sense.  Given the recent disasters ENO had with foolish updatings of Carmen (to present day UK) and The Coronation of Poppea (inside a fish tank from what I could tell), this production is proof that sometimes, it pays for the director to do as the script says and simply put on a good show.