Irish Times writers review the Opera Gala at the NCH in Dublin and The Mystery of Chung Ling Soo at the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire.
Opera Gala
Opera Gala
National Concert Hall, Dublin
John Allen
Two composers, four overtures, a prelude and a selection of vocal solos and duets might look like patchy programming. But when those composers are Mozart and Verdi, the singers are in good voice and the orchestra is in top form, the agenda makes sense.
At the NCH on Friday, Gerhard Markson and the RTÉ NSO offered playing that ranged from beautiful violin sheen in the La traviata prelude, through rich if over-prominent brass sound in an exciting La forza del destino overture, to admirable woodwind dexterity at quite fast speeds in the overtures to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Così fan tutte, English tenor Peter Auty, who impressed as a passionate Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème at this venue in December, was equally adept here. His Mozart heroes were no wimps; Tamino's portrait aria and Ferrando's "Un aurora amorosa" were delivered with macho but musically-aware earnestness. And he broke the resistance of Cara O'Sullivan's Fiordiligi winningly in their duet "Fra gli amplessi".
The Cork soprano was in sovereign voice. Some slight uncertainty on staccato high notes in Constanze's "Ach ich liebte" gave way to appropriately granite-like steadiness in Fiordiligi's "Come scoglio" and warm submissiveness in the same character's capitulation duet.
Turning to Verdi's spinto repertoire, she followed a riveting performance of the Forza Leonora's "Pace, pace mio dio", complete with spine-chilling final curse, with a commanding portrayal of Violetta's changing moods in the scena that rounds out Act One of La traviata.
The nature of the programme didn't offer much scope for soft singing. It was all high-octane stuff. And it continued that way right to the end when, in the somewhat curtailed sequence of duets from Act Three of La traviata, both singers continued to give their passionate all before relaxing for the drinking song encore.
The Mystery of Chung Ling Soo
Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire
Gerry Colgan
The New York-based Flying Carpet Theatre Company likes to embed strong stories in an old vaudeville ambience using mime, silent film music, conjuring tricks and stage magic. This play is loosely based on the true story of William Ellsworth Robinson, a minor variety performer who hit the big time when he adopted the stage name and invented Chinese persona of Chung Ling Soo, and contrived a series of illusions and tricks that rivalled those of his rival Houdini.
One of Soo's specialities was a bullet-catching illusion in which people fired rifles at him. He caught the missiles between his teeth, and spat them into a dish.
But one evening in 1918, the trick literally misfired, and it was so long, Soo. Not content with the potential for drama in this, the company has gone further to create a poor man's version of Jekyll and Hyde.
In this reworking, Robinson at first appears to be a successful back-room manipulator of a Chinese front man, the brains behind all the good stuff seen on stage. Later we learn that he is oppressed by his profitable anonymity, and wishes to change the act to have a decent role in it himself. The other company members object, and he is driven to a scheme of inflicting murder most foul on his Oriental puppet. He then reappears in a new act of his own, and the rest is silence.
The tinkering with historical accuracy produces a confusing denouement in which the murder remains unsolved by the law, and the born-again Robinson is unconvincing.
En route to it, there is a decent measure of pseudo-Chinese stage music and movement, low-level conjuring and music-hall atmosphere.
Not really for the beady-eyed, it is professionally performed by a cast of five.
Next in Clonmel 7.06 Junction Festival July 3rd to 7th.
