- Mendelssohn: Elijah
- Mysliveček: L'Olimpiade
- Piotr Sałajczyk
- Kostas Grigoreas
- Victory over the Sun
- Queensland Symphony Orchestra
- Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines Plymouth
- Curzon Brass
ARTICLES BEING VIEWED NOW:
- January 2025 Obituaries - Our summary of those the classical music world has lost this month
- United States of America
- Fresh Perspectives - Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music celebrates its centenary season
- Francisco Feliciano
- The Bird Has Flown - Peter King says farewell to his favourite BBC Radio 3 'Saturday Breakfast' host, Elizabeth Alker
Brilliantly Imaginative Staging
MIKE WHEELER witnesses the devastating conclusion to Handel's 'Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno' at the Buxton Festival
A philosophical debate between four allegorical characters, with no obvious physical action, is not, on the face of it, the kind of thing that makes for compelling musical theatre, but the Early Opera Company was back to pull off the seemingly impossible – Buxton Opera House, Buxton, UK, 7 July, 2024 – following an equally unlikely but triumphantly successful Acis and Galatea in 2021.
Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (The Triumph of Time and Disillusion) was Handel's first oratorio, dating from near the start of his stay in Italy. The central character, Bellezza (Beauty) is under the spell of Piacere (Pleasure), while Tempo (Time) and Disinganno (Disillusion) try to warn her that it cannot last.
In his pre-show talk, director Jacopo Spirei, who staged Rossini's La Donna del Lago at Buxton in 2022, described the libretto as 'a classic Catholic moral tale'. It is also possible to view it through a lens of Enlightenment rationality.
So how do you stage it? Spirei's answer is to set it during a family Christmas, in a suburban house sometime in the 1970s (designer Anna Bonomelli), with the four characters as dad, mum and two rebellious daughters. Act I takes place over Christmas dinner, Act II during its aftermath. The title, of course, tells us how it is all going to work out.
From left to right: Jorge Navarro Colorado as Tempo, Hilary Cronin as Piacere, Hilary Summers as Disinganno and Anna Dennis as Bellezza in Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Buxton Festival.
Photo © 2024 Genevieve Girling
All four singers command the stage with effortless authority. Anna Dennis' Bellezza, in glittery party dress, is all too eager to soak up Piacere's blandishments at first. Hilary Cronin, in a more punk outfit, sets out Piacere's increasingly urgent attempts to keep Bellezza on side. Both singers give their characters plenty of attitude.
Anna Dennis as Bellezza (left) and Hilary Cronin as Piacere in Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Buxton Festival.
Photo © 2024 Genevieve Girling
Hilary Summers' Disinganno and Jorge Navarro Colorado's Tempo are more conventionally dressed, naturally, Disinganno repeatedly telling Piacere to keep her feet off the furniture, Tempo confident in his invincibility.
Hilary Summers as Disinganno and Jorge Navarro Colorado as Tempo in Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Buxton Festival.
Photo © 2024 Genevieve Girling
All four are completely idiomatic Handel singers. Anna Dennis (2021's Galatea) has the furthest distance to travel, emotionally. Her eventual transformation is both convincing and astonishing, as she comes to take on board what Disinganno and Tempo have been telling her, discarding her jewellery, presents and, the biggest shock of all, her long blonde wig, slipping a grey hoodie over her dress. Hilary Cronin give Piacere a chirpy defiance towards Disinganno, and increasing despondency at the prospect of losing Bellezza's allegiance. She urges Bellezza not to touch the prickly future that's in store in a winning account of her aria 'Lascia la spina' which Handel re-used as 'Lascia ch'io pianga' in Rinaldo. Hilary Summers gives Disinganno real authority, while Jorge Navarro Colorado's lyrically-sung Tempo is not as lightweight as he might first appear.
From left to right: Hilary Cronin as Piacere, Jorge Navarro Colorado as Tempo and Anna Dennis as Bellezza in Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Buxton Festival. Photo © 2024 Genevieve Girling
Conductor Christian Curnyn paces everything with a sure touch, and the Early Opera Company Orchestra responds with vivid, colourful playing.
Anna Dennis as Bellezza (left) with
Hilary Summers as Disinganno and
Jorge Navarro Colorado as Tempo
(on the floor) in Handel's Il
Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno
at the Buxton Festival.
Photo © 2024 Genevieve Girling
In Spirei's words, is the ending 'wise, bitter, or cynical?' As Bellezza, left alone, slowly turns the chairs on their sides, and sinks back into the place by the wall in which she started, the question is left with us. Whatever our answer, it is a devastating conclusion to a brilliantly imaginative staging.
Copyright © 17 July 2024
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
