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Gay/Britten - The Beggar’s Opera
Christian Curnyn – Conductor Justin Way – Director Kimm Kovac & Andrew Has – Designs Aaron Black – Lighting Steve Elias - Choreography
Peachum – Jeremy White Filch – Robert Anthony Gardiner Mrs Peachum – Susan Bickley Polly Peachum – Leah-Marian Jones Macheath – Tom Randle Diana Trapes – Frances McCafferty
ROH Linbury Studio 27 January 2009
As the programme note writer was keen to point out, it was the box office profits from the opening run of John Gay’s The Beggars Opera that financed the building of the theatre which we now know as The Royal Opera House. The set emphasised the point even further, presenting the audience with a stage-side view of the interior of the house, complete with monogrammed curtain.
The true irony of the opera is that it counterpoints the essential honesty of the lyrical ballads that combine to form the musical score with the total lack of honesty of the characters portrayed on stage. They are the stuff of soap opera villains, giving singers the unusual task of having to deliver big chunks of period dialogue in the accents of today. Those that drew from their own roots, whether or not they were entirely appropriate, Leah-Marian Jones’s Welsh accented Polly and Frances McCafferty’s Scottish and superbly funny Diana Trapes succeeded well, those that assumed something “foreign” (Donald Maxwell’s Scotckney Lockit) were less effective.
Justin Way’s direction was spectacular in its attention to detail, with each of the characters listed as “ensemble” lovingly portrayed – here Miranda Wescott’s Jenny Diver deserves special mention – and all these roles were strongly realised by a cast of young singers.
As far as the singing went, Tom Randle (Macheath) stood out head and shoulders above the rest, and Christian Curnyn conducted the small ensemble with total commitment.
Whilst Britten’s orchestral arrangement makes good sense of the eighteenth century original, a firmer editorial hand would have trimmed 15 minutes or so from the repetitious dialogue. Nevertheless, this was a good evening of theatrical entertainment, fully justifying it’s inclusion in the ROH calendar.
Serena Fenwick
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