Scottish Opera The Verdi Collection Usher Hall Edinburgh February 11th 2023 Review
Eri Nakamura and Lester Lynch in The Verdi Collection. Scottish Opera 2023. Credit Sally Jubb
Scottish Opera The Verdi Collection at the Usher Hall Edinburgh tonight was a celebration of selected works from the mid to later period of one of music’s (not just opera’s) most creative minds, Italian composer Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813-1901). This “in concert” production (no stage sets or stage costumes) was the perfect setting for us all in the audience just to sit back and explore with Stuart Stratford (Conductor) why he had chosen the excerpts from the five Verdi operas that made up tonight’s programme.
I have to admit that, for me, the stage setting is an important part of that whole experience of going to the theatre to watch and listen to an opera and that was obviously not there this evening. To be honest though, as Stuart Stratford explained at the beginning of tonight’s performance, Verdi was so skilled as a composer of music, so skilled in his use of an orchestra and his ability to use even a single instrument to express an emotion that, with his music, everything was already there. With Verdi, stage setting is of course still important, but it is at times almost like window dressing as Verdi through his music has already created the world that his operas are set in. Perhaps this is why Verdi operas are also open to so many different perspectives in time and place as the true story and the true emotions of the work never change irrespective of setting.
The selected operas in this programme were written between the late 1850s and 1880s, a period in which Verdi, having written the bulk of his operatic output in earlier years, was now financially stable enough to explore only work and ideas that interested him in some way, works that allowed him to take himself and opera into new directions. This choice which was to see him moving away from not only traditional Italian compositional methods, but also Italian literature as a source material, was not a change welcomed by everyone, but of course Verdi was to prove them all wrong and create works such as “La Traviata” where music, emotions, story, and stage setting became unified strands of creativity. With Violetta in this opera, Verdi even subtly alters his music to reflect her changing emotions as the story develops.
Any programme of music like this one is going to place special demands upon the performers as they not only have to sing music from different operas (something any competent singer should be able to do with ease), but they also have to get into that character’s role for that performance and very quickly come out of it and become someone else for the next extract. This latter ability is for me where the real skill of a performer comes in, their ability to make us the audience now believe that they are now someone else.
Given that the “in concert” performance format this evening had no stage/costume setting to enhance these character changes, we had to rely purely on the interpretive skills of Katherine Aitken (Mezzo-soprano), Peter Auty (Tenor), Lester Lynch (Baritone), Eri Nakamura (Soprano), and Jihoon Kim (taking over the Bass roles of an indisposed Brindley Sherratt) and everyone gave us that ability to express who they were though music and emotions that Verdi so obviously envisioned when composing for their operatic characters. Here in operatic excerpts, political intrigue and treachery, tragedy, love, loss, redemption and many other aspects of human nature were given life by Verdi’s music and Scottish Opera’s musicians and performers. Verdi wrote timeless music, but it is obvious that the source material for some of these operas, particularly the fates of some of the leading female characters in them, was written in another time with different viewpoints to what we now have on some subjects.
One pleasant change this evening with this “in concert” was to see the Scottish Opera Orchestra on centre stage at the Usher Hall, watching and listening to them bring Verdi’s music to life. Sometimes, hidden down in the orchestra pit of a conventional theatrical performance, they do not always get the full credit that they deserve for performances.
Operas included in this programme were - La traviata, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Don Carlo, Otello, and Les vepres sicilliennes.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
I have to admit that, for me, the stage setting is an important part of that whole experience of going to the theatre to watch and listen to an opera and that was obviously not there this evening. To be honest though, as Stuart Stratford explained at the beginning of tonight’s performance, Verdi was so skilled as a composer of music, so skilled in his use of an orchestra and his ability to use even a single instrument to express an emotion that, with his music, everything was already there. With Verdi, stage setting is of course still important, but it is at times almost like window dressing as Verdi through his music has already created the world that his operas are set in. Perhaps this is why Verdi operas are also open to so many different perspectives in time and place as the true story and the true emotions of the work never change irrespective of setting.
The selected operas in this programme were written between the late 1850s and 1880s, a period in which Verdi, having written the bulk of his operatic output in earlier years, was now financially stable enough to explore only work and ideas that interested him in some way, works that allowed him to take himself and opera into new directions. This choice which was to see him moving away from not only traditional Italian compositional methods, but also Italian literature as a source material, was not a change welcomed by everyone, but of course Verdi was to prove them all wrong and create works such as “La Traviata” where music, emotions, story, and stage setting became unified strands of creativity. With Violetta in this opera, Verdi even subtly alters his music to reflect her changing emotions as the story develops.
Any programme of music like this one is going to place special demands upon the performers as they not only have to sing music from different operas (something any competent singer should be able to do with ease), but they also have to get into that character’s role for that performance and very quickly come out of it and become someone else for the next extract. This latter ability is for me where the real skill of a performer comes in, their ability to make us the audience now believe that they are now someone else.
Given that the “in concert” performance format this evening had no stage/costume setting to enhance these character changes, we had to rely purely on the interpretive skills of Katherine Aitken (Mezzo-soprano), Peter Auty (Tenor), Lester Lynch (Baritone), Eri Nakamura (Soprano), and Jihoon Kim (taking over the Bass roles of an indisposed Brindley Sherratt) and everyone gave us that ability to express who they were though music and emotions that Verdi so obviously envisioned when composing for their operatic characters. Here in operatic excerpts, political intrigue and treachery, tragedy, love, loss, redemption and many other aspects of human nature were given life by Verdi’s music and Scottish Opera’s musicians and performers. Verdi wrote timeless music, but it is obvious that the source material for some of these operas, particularly the fates of some of the leading female characters in them, was written in another time with different viewpoints to what we now have on some subjects.
One pleasant change this evening with this “in concert” was to see the Scottish Opera Orchestra on centre stage at the Usher Hall, watching and listening to them bring Verdi’s music to life. Sometimes, hidden down in the orchestra pit of a conventional theatrical performance, they do not always get the full credit that they deserve for performances.
Operas included in this programme were - La traviata, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Don Carlo, Otello, and Les vepres sicilliennes.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com