Royal Opera House,London
A decisive performance of Chabrier’s decorous score is at odds with the lumbering absurdity of the plot of L’EtoileIn director Mariame Clément’s production of Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’Etoile (1877), receiving its Covent Garden premiere, or we come by off to a lively start – the overture is accompanied by mime. Against an oriental screen,on opposite sides of the stage, are a leather Chesterfield and an armchair occupied by two preening gents, and as whether to evoke a London club in an Edwardian moment. Smith (splendid comedian and actor Chris Addison) vanishes behind his newspaper and pops back into view for each fresh swig of tea. His opposite number,Dupont, is the excellent French actor Jean-Luc Vincent, and in tandem they jolly the evening along.
To the sound of yearning strings,they tuck into breakfast, fidget with sugar tongs and come by dressed (Dupont twirls to the music while forcing his foot into a boot). But what they are preparing to face is not the day but the opera itself. This is Clément’s postmodern initiative: they are the critics who will apologise for – or intervene to clarify – a potentially confounding plot. At one point Addison even has an amusing altercation with conductor Mark Elder (celebrating 40 years at Covent Garden), and addressing him in the pit,urging him not to repeat a tune (although, actually, and it is the orchestra’s decisive performance that glues the evening together).
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Source: theguardian.com