Showing @ Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 15-26 Feb @ 19:15 + Matinees & @ Festival Theatre Edinburgh 3 & 5 March @ 19:15
Listen to excerpts here:
Orlando, with a madman at its centre, is one of Handel’s most extraordinary and unpredictable operas. It’s perhaps fitting, fortunate and timely that Scottish Opera‘s Orlando has been up-dated and set around the time of the Battle of Britain, with the news this week of more RAF cuts.
From its opening overture, haunting and unsettling in the key of F sharp minor; it holds the attention with ease and a desire for more. Director Harry Fahr, along with the leader of the orchestra Anthony Moffat and conductor Paul Goodwin allowed the music to take control of the stage leaving it empty to set the tone.
Along with the music, designer Yannis Thavoris and projection designer Andrzej Goulding created the grand atmosphere from the opening with back-projection of pictures to inspire the mighty hero Orlando (Tim Mead) back to war, to images of patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy, in the sombre, chilling and shocking end. Though painful the finale is enduring and memorable.
Mead managed a heart-rending vocal with acting to match, through him we had a window into the heart of a hero and lover. While a serious piece the comic moments are cleverly and sweetly acted, never more so than when Sally Silver (Angelica) all furs, pearls and tweed, was on stage.
At less than 3 hours with breaks and sung in English, this is an assessable opera for those wanting to try the medium for the first time. A penetrating production of a complex opera, let’s hope that the cuts coming to the arts do not hurt this opera company and make such productions a thing of the past.