It’s a time for theatrical marathons. The night after sitting through three and a half hours of the National Theatre’s revival of Man and Superman I found myself at The Coliseum Theatre watching the ENO’s (English National Opera) three hour, forty minutes production of The Indian Queen.I think risky productions like this prove they most definitely are worth their funding. There are 5 or 6 popular opera titles that draw big audiences, many opera houses seldom dare depart from them but ENO have never succumbed to playing it safe and have always mixed the hits with projects that are more difficult to attract an audience to.
I think risky productions like this prove ENO most definitely are worth their funding
This production is the brainchild of hippy, opera-director-superstar Peter Sellars, renowned around the world for his fresh, revelatory productions that are daringly hit and miss. E.N.O have given him a residency allowing time and money for him to create two massive productions based on unusual ideas. I missed the first, The Gospel of The Other Mary but I’m happy to report that this second work is as infuriating and sublime as you could hope for from a director who never plays it safe.
On this occasion Sellars has taken an unfinished oratorio by Purcell, all glistening harpsichord trills, lutes and distant drums, and used it, along with a selection of the composers other work to tell the story of a Mayan Queen and her tragic love for a Spanish invader as he ransacks her homeland, slaughtering, terrorising and pillaging her countrymen.
The story is earthy and bloody, narrated non operatically, with additional interpretive dance, sometimes performed to a tropical soundscape. In contrast the music is elegant and ethereal. Throw into the mix modern dress costumes that make everybody look like they’re at a hippy flea-market in Ibiza and scenery that reproduces Mexican iconography as urban graffiti.
For hours the elements barley gel and the juxtapositions are distracting at best and at often extremely irritating.
But there are certain moments, very, very special moments when the purity of the music and the precision of the beautiful singing come together in some heartbreaking context of horror and betrayal when the human voice seems to evoke something primeval and timeless that’ll touch your soul.
The staging is intentionally basic with graffiti painted panels flying in and out or hauled around the stage to represent tanks or animals amidst bit of scruffy furniture and rostra. Very often the aged, portly chorus look very uncomfortable through the basic movement direction that requires them to play dead or do hand actions interpreting the lyrics. The 4 Lycra clad dancers that flit in and out are also rather embarrassing but, once again, there are moments of breathtaking simplicity that convey acres of meaning.
Or perhaps if a production’s as long as this you’re bound to find something that touches you amongst the morass.
Music from Purcell’s period requires immaculate falsetto voices and those on display here are light and piercingly beautiful. Unhelpfully during such a long evening the best musical moments evoke the enticing bliss of sleep.
Music from Purcell’s period requires immaculate falsetto voices and those on display here are light and piercingly beautiful
Lovely though these interludes are I’m not convince the evening needs to be as rambling and repetitive as it is. Purcell’s original pieces for The Indian Queen total just 90 minutes so you can imagine how much padding there is. Perhaps things would have gathered more momentum if the interpretive dance was performed during the narration rather than in the gaps between when it often merely illustrates what we’ve just heard.
Why not take a chance and see what you make of it? The production boasts one of the most beautiful leading men I’ve ever seen in the West End (Thomas Walker) and he can really sing too. Maritxell Carrero ’s thick accent gives the spoken narration a ring of Mexican authenticity even if there’s not much variety to the delivery.
Whilst ENO continue to be so daring they certainly have my support. How lucky we are to have a subsidised playground where world class artists can be radical for our entertainment. If the result is a mixed bag I’m still glad this work is there to be seen for prices that are accessible to everyone. Opera going would be very dull indeed if all that was on offer were endless reboots of Puccini.
The fact that the stars of this show are mechanically operated puppets does not detract at all from the emotion that you feel here. If anything, I would give this production more praise – making me cry at the obstacles that a horse and his owner overcome is nothing short of incredible!