Review: Garsington Opera at Wormsley
A glorious early summer's evening with Garsington Opera at Wormsley was the reward for those who had left work early. If wandering around the country's most beautiful cricket ground with a glass of champagne was not enough to lighten the step, then this new production of L'italiana in Algeri would do the trick.
The action of this frothy farce – less a story, more a stringing together of standard opera plot devices – starts at the Ottoman-style court of Mustafa, with the Bey of Algiers, the Dutch bass Quirijn de Lang, strutting and pouting as a sexy pantomime cross between Yul Brynner and Rudolph Valentino. Mustafa wants to banish his wife Elvira, played as a Thirties movie starlet by the elegant British soprano Mary Bevan, and orders his henchman to find him an Italian addition for his harem whilst trying to convince his favourite Italian slave, Lindoro, (Luciano Botelho, managing to emerge smiling after some fiendish tessitura) to marry Elvira and take her back to Italy. Cue a shipwreck and the arrival of Lindoro's inamorata: the Turkish mezzo Ezgi Kutlu, as the Italian woman of the title. She excels in her coloratura with a fruity, luxurious tone, channeling Sophia Loren in sunglasses and red lace. Behind her was the unlikely suitor Taddeo, sung by the Italian baritone Riccardo Novaro with resonant native buffo, and dressed as a vaudeville milord with cream flannels and two-tone brogues. The scene is then set for a rescue of Lindoro by Isabella, now dressed in a blue pleated outfit reminiscent of the glass-shattering soprano in the Tintin books, Bianca Castafiore, with plenty of time along the way for bravura arias and early Italian patriotism.
The opera has a terrific overture and a wonderful Act I finale: both highlights in this very secure performance. There's fun to be had too spotting favourite cultural references in a staging by Will Tuckett not fixed in any particular time. Imagine a Marx Brothers' film, drenched in a Hergé colour scheme with a dash of neorealist Italian cinema all played out on a rippling Busby Berkeley soundstage. Lindoro comes on wearing Marcello Mastroianni's white suit from La Dolce Vita; Janissaries vogue in elongated fezzes and teal-blue frock-coats. When not gasping, with tongues lolling in admiration for Isabella, Garsington's small male chorus sing and act with wit and style, and are led by the very promising young bass baritone Božidar Smiljanić, skipping class (he's still a student at the Royal Academy of Music) to play their captain, Haly. Garsington's long-running relationship with the bel canto specialist and the conductor David Parry continues to earn dividends with crisp playing from Garsington's orchestra. We are promised a rematch next year when Parry and Rossini return for the revival of this opera's stable mate, Il Turco in Italia. An opera warmly appreciated by an audience grateful for a spot of Mediterranean sun.
'L'italiana in Algeri' will run at Garsington Opera at Wormsley until 10 July.
***
MORE OPERA
Tannhauser at the Royal Opera House
La Traviata at Rome's Teatro Dell'Opera
Il Trittico at the Royal Opera House
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