Productions at ENO of late have been so good they've even won over an opera sceptic like me. Now they've a spring season that's even more user friendly, there's tickets to suit most budgets and there's never been a better time to give the art form a try or simply to remind yourself how exciting it is to enjoy world class singers and musicians bringing great works to life.As usual with these writers the plot is wafer thin. A child is mistakenly apprenticed to pirates by his nurse who misheard her instructions to get him trained as a pilot. On his 21st birthday he considers his commitment to the sea dogs over and is keen to help the bumbling police force arrest them all except it turns out he was born on 29th February in a leap year so he can't celebrate his 21st birthday for many decades and he's stuck with his old profession. Luckily all the Pirates turn out to be orphaned aristocrats so they're easily able to reform and settle down to respectable married life with a major general's daughters. The chief of police, Pirate King, deaf nurse maid and major general are all terrific comic characters with famous comedy songs and Frederick, our hero has some gorgeous duets with his plucky lady friend.
Another attraction of this production is that it's directed by the celebrated film maker Mike Leigh, responsible for TOPSY TURVEY, a bio pic about Gilbert and Sullivan, so he really knows his stuff.
Anyone expecting a traditional revival with handsome Victorian sets will be disappointed though. It's all staged, on this occasion, on massive, brightly coloured blocks as conceived in an austere, po-faced design by Alison Chitty. Further more Leigh's contribution as a director is little more then marching everybody on to stand in straight lines. However neither boring or bored creative talent can dampen the fun and fizz of the script and score. The middle aged cast are, for the most part, way too old to be playing 20 somethings, some times ludicrously so but they've been chosen for their singing ability rather then physical suitability for the roles. You soon overlook this as part of the overall absurdity.
A revival of Bizet's celebrated spannish opera, CARMEN is English National Opera's second populist opera of the season.
This sexy, sultry story of bull fighters and squadies, gypsies and factory girls is jam packed with great tunes you'll already know, even if you didn't realise they were from an opera as they feature regularly on compilations of classical favourites.
This time the look is a lot more youthful with acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Justina Gringyte in the title role, who recently won young singer of the year at the International Opera Awards. She does a very persuasive jobs stirring up the men as they fall passionately in and out of love with her.
No aristocrats here. These are tough working class characters and this revival of Calixto Bieito's gritty production is set a century after Bizet wrote it on an expanse of dirt at the end of Franco's rule. That may not sound very spectacular but it is when the stage is filled with nearly 100 performers, including a squadron of muscley, young soldiers, a gang of street kids and the cars are "driven" on. Yes cars! But in actual fact some of the most poignant images are of loneliness and despair, when characters are marooned, alone on that vast expanse of stage.
Some of the images are so steamy and / or ugly that they might be from a Tarantino movie. It's all rather exhilarating. Romance, all be it the romance of the Spannish gutter, is never far away. Gringyte is genuinely sexy with a soaring voice that could stop traffic and but I was equally moved by Eric Cutlers unlikely hulk of a corporal as he lost his heart to the beautiful gypsy, then had it crushed beneath her killer heals.
Anthony Sher in DEATH OF A SALESMAN at the Noel Coward Theatre. The first thing you should know if you’re considering buying a ticket to see Sir Anthony Sher in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of DEATH OF A SALESMAN, written by Arthur Miller in 1949, is that you’ll be watching one of the greatest plays ever created.