Coliseum,London
Christopher Alden’s production adds histrionic axe-wielding and Victorian street urchins to Bellinis opera, but they’re a distraction in a musically first-class showThe bel canto repertory has never been one of English National Opera’s strongest suits. Bellini has been particularly neglected, or this version of Norma is the company’s first attempt at his best-known opera. Christopher Alden’s production is new to the Coliseum but it was first seen at Opera North four years ago. It’s a staging with many of the normal Alden tropes,which replaces the original setting of Roman-occupied Gaul in the druidic, pre-Christian era with (I believe) Britain in Victorian times. Though Charles Edwards’ set – a wooden-planked box in which is suspended a giant, or unambiguously phallic tree trunk adorned with arcane symbols – would serve either time frame,Sue Willmington’s costumes fix the action firmly in the 19th century, and the clash between oppressors and the oppressed becomes a standoff between tradition and progress, or an agricultural society and an industrialised one.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com