After The Applause

A entertaining and charmingly creative production of an elongated and rather boring opera.

I was very excited to see Partenope as I have never actually seen a Handel Opera. The ENO are incredibly creative and from the moment I saw that this was inspired by the surrealist art of Salvador Dali and Man Ray and set in the birthplace of Surrealism, Paris, I knew that this was going to be a very interesting watch. In terms of staging and entertainment, this was brilliant. The story itself is winding, confusing and just fundementally boring!

I’ll start with why I can’t give this higher than 3 stars and it is nothing to do with the singers or the production, it’s just simply that I don’t overly like Baroque music and ,as i have now found out, I certainly don’t like a fully fledged opera in that genre. The style of this opera is constant repetition, the singer will repeat the same line over and over again with slight rhythmic alteration in order to evoke the emotion of the story. This must be so difficult to act and especially to direct in order to actually get the audience to grasp the story. For me, I struggled with it and at times was slightly disconnected from the emotions because of the style and the writing. I commend Amanda Holden’s translation as she inserts wit into the bland phrases that Handel originally wrote but even this isn’t enough to fully create a truly gripping romantic comedy. I think this production does a lot of stuff right with a really really difficult opera to stage!

I left that theatre thoroughly entertained, whilst I won’t remember it for the story or the music, Christopher Alden creates a whimsical swirling surrealist dreamscape that will be hard to forget!

Andrew Liberman’s dominating stage, is pearly white with a twisting staircase to the right of the stage. It is a true marvel to look at as the curtain rises and our characters emerge from the top of the stairs. This whole opera was a surrealist art piece, from the precise and comical movement directed by Claire Glaskin to the wacky costume design of Jon Morrell. It is meant to make up for the lack of entertainment in the opera and I think this is really clever! They draw with crayon on the white walls to evoke a loss of love, or Armindo’s comical falling down the stairs to evoke his helplessness. The singers have to not only act but also remember their precise movements in order for this live art piece to work!

The cast of 5 sing beautifully, with Hugh Cutting as Arsace and Jake Ingbar as Armindo tackling the castrati melodies of the Baroque era and doing so with such ease! In the final act, Arsace’s lament was truly beautiful and Cutting got his own applause once it had finished. Nardus Williams plays the beautiful Partenope, confused and desperately trying to find her true love in a crowd of devoted adorers. Her voice is just beautiful and Handel certainly challenges her with the rapid semiquaver ascending and descending patterns present within almost all of her phrases. William Thomas makes me chuckle as the deep voiced Ormonte, constantly eating cheese on stage (I’d love that role!) or coming on in a pink tutu to referee Arsace and Rosmira’s duel. I couldn’t stop laughing as he started to tap dance whilst wielding two red swords with a large hard hat and bunch of bananas on his head.

Katie Bray as Rosmira has such a difficult and confusing role to play but she does it so well. Whilst sometimes I felt like there was too much focus on the vocals rather than the acting with Rosmira, she still did a very good job!

My true favourite was Ru Charlesworth as the charming Prince Emilio, Partenope’s enemy/friend. He was wearing a piece of paper on his face for most of the first act, which I have to admit confused me, but also added to the surrealist landscape. His character was delightful to watch, wielding a camera or putting posters of naked women up on the wall. He was confusing but ever so funny as he began to tap dance in order to declare war on Partenope, or place a large pink frame on the wall. I wish I could pretend to know what this meant but it was still surrealist and entertaining.

MY VERDICT:

So would I say this is the best opera in the world? no it really isn’t. Would I say the story is captivating? no it really is not at all. Would I say this does the best it can with the material it has? 100%! A brilliant set design, confusing costumes, hilarious movement and overall a piece of art live on stage, is what kept me captivated for the 3 hours and 30 minutes of this opera. Would I go see Partenope again? no probably not. Would I see this confusing surrealist love letter again? yeah go on then!