Christopher Walker reviews Aleko and Gianni Schicchi at Grange Park Opera
Christopher Walker reviews Aleko and Gianni Schicchi at Grange Park Opera
Grange Park Opera has long been the jewel in the crown of London’s summer opera season.
Brought to life by the one-woman dynamo that is Wasfi Kani in Bamber Gascoigne’s former stately home, it is the chicest of all the festivals, and one of the most innovative.
This summer season continues true to form with a very unusual double bill twinning the crowd-pleasing Puccini opera Gianni Schicchi with the much more rarely performed early work of Rachmaninoff – Aleko.
In this production both pieces are enlivened by the presence of Welsh opera star Bryn Terfel who continues to be in fine voice and to demonstrate to newcomers just how to dominate a stage.
Both pieces are made even more spectacular by the incredibly sleek designs of Jamie Vartan.
Gianni Schicchi is set in a smart contemporary apartment in Florence. Bryn is dressed in red leather motorbike gear, and somehow brings Jeremy Clarkson to mind.
The plot concerns a group of grasping relatives who arrive at the home of their wealthy uncle just at the moment he dies and, after scrambling to find the will, realise to their horror that he has left his fortune entirely to the Church. They then conspire, with the help of trickster Schicchi, to change the will.
Apart from Terfel, Pasquale Orchard stands out as his beautiful daughter and performs the show’s big aria Mia Bambino Caro perfectly, bringing the house down.
By comparison, Aleko could not offer such musical highlights, but it certainly makes up for that with some gripping drama.
The chic Florence apartment is turned into what appears to be a graffitied squat in downtown Moscow, occupied by a gang of punk ne’er-do-wells.
Terfel is an outsider in this group, an older man married to the treacherous Zemfira superbly played by the pint-sized Ailish Tynan. She is quick to betray him with her young anarchist DJ lover Luis Gomes.
Both productions are simply outstanding. And Grange Park Opera’s crown remains assured.
For tickets for the summer season, click here.
Pictured top: The cast for Gianni Schicchi Picture: Marc Brenner
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