Verdi Luisa Miller Opera Holland Park 27 July 2004

Luisa Miller - Anne Sophie Duprels
Rodolfo - Alan Oke

Miller - Mark Holland
Count Walter - Richard Angas
Wurm - Paul Reeves
Federica - Pippa Longworth
Laura - Kathryn Hannah
City of London Sinfonia & Opera Holland Park Chorus/Peter Robinson

Director Olivia Fuchs
Design Jamie Vartan
Lighting Simon Corder

This was the final production of another successful season in Holland Park's serviceable tented auditorium, in which enjoyment has been augmented by a new improved sur-titles box. They have enjoyed full houses and, remarkably, suffered no cancellations despite savage weather conditions; our home was seriously flooded twice during the last fortnight!

For us the most rewarding production this year was that of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West. But there have to be serious reservations about OHP's final offering. I find it almost unbelievable that Olivia Fuchs and Jamie Vartan, responsible for a truly great Fidelio at Holland Park 2003, were in charge of this depressing mid-20 C. staging of Luisa Miller, an opera which has had an unhappy recent history in London, notably the "toytown" production at Covent Garden, also last year. It is far from easy to bring off, but the production at Holland Park is null visually and the show is really only kept from sinking by the feisty Anne Sophie Duprels, a delight as the eponymous ill-fated heroine, and the excellent City of London Sinfonia steered perfectly by Peter Robinson.

The lengthy first act (delayed because of double-booking confusion, and drowned at times by low-flying helicopters!) felt even longer, and the heart began to sink as the action opened with the stylised gestures of Luisa's birthday 'friends', performing sub-Robert Wilson semaphoring, which seemed to be underlining every phrase as if they were explaining things word by word to deaf junior schoolchildren. (What an embarrassment that young opera heroines often boast a multitude of companions - it provides work for opera companies choruses - right up to the 20th C. with Jennifer's 'friends' in the cringe-making première production of Tippett's Midsummer Marriage !).

But huge relief with the arrival of the diminutive Duprels who (very nearly) saves things with assured, powerful and affecting singing (even if not always with ultimate refinement in her high notes); her easeful manner and body language as natural as could be. Whenever she was on stage one tried to forgive the inadequacies of most of the others; Mark Holland's singing dubiously pitched and tiringly loud, Richard Angas with a bizarre vocal production as if he had two large plums in his throat.

As darkness fell during the young Verdi's last act a real atmosphere developed in the OHP tent. I enjoyed Alan Oke with his delectable Luisa in their prolonged death-throes duet, the couple dying together from poison through misunderstanding and the vow of silence enjoined by the villainous scheming Wurm, who got his comeuppance just at the end. Londoners and home counties opera goers will be keenly awaiting news of the selection of familiar and rarer operas for the 2005 season.

To demonstrate how personal are responses to opera productions nowadays, read a concurring opinion of OHP's Luisa Miller in the Telegraph 27 July, and for a dissenting one see Tim Ashley in The Guardian 29 July!

For full information about OHP's seasons, including a gallery of production photos, see the Opera Holland Park website.