The Fairy Queen (Glyndebourne Opera)

If you're going to stage Purcell's "The Fairy Queen" this is probably the way to do it. A riot of colour and excess the visuals make it difficult to grow bored. That said, everything else about this work wanted to put me straight to sleep. What little music there is (depressingly little in the first half and slightly more in the second), is very attractive and at times quite emotional but it hardly makes slogging through three hours of mutilated Shakespeare all that pleasant. I've never seen the mechanicals' play done better but otherwise this is such broad strokes drama that it wouldn't nearly pass muster outside of an opera house.

I've never claimed to love Baroque music but it's pleasant enough and with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightment you could hardly hear it played better. It's just as a total work this is bizarrely poor stuff. The (badly) edited Shakespeare dominates the running time. The large cast of actors give it a fair go but ultimately they're spouting a very poor script and whilst the bawdy mechanicals do fine, the young lovers just come across as silly. When the masques eventually feature they have limited connection to the drama serving only to scupper what momentum had been developing. Individually they are simply terrific, gosh "The Plaint" is wonderful, but it doesn't build towards a cohesive evening and despite the slick production I was still left completely bewildered. After a first half with only a tiny amount of music and far too much faux-Shakespeare, the second ties up the story relatively quickly and then just moves into more extended music which was infinitely preferable. Every image you could imagine is tossed on stage to eye-popping effect. The point still eludes me but it was impressive.

It's very much a company piece with lots of major acting and singing roles. Lucy Crowe is a standout; her lovely voice soars in the small Glyndebourne opera house. Carolyn Sampson who excels in the moving Plaint was a consistant presence. Few others really shone although it was a pretty decent company performance with only some weak diction and slight vocal wobbles disappointing. The actors did their best although the whole piece had a slight cut-price Royal Shakespeare Company feel, with lots of loud declaiming to little effect. The audience lapped up some of the jokes like they'd never heard "A Midsummer Night's Dream" before. Only the mechanicals strike theatrical gold. The play within the play is absolute hoot, a rolling melon one of the funniest gags I've come across in awhile. Desmond Barrit's coarse but effective Bottom the highlight of the evening.

I really don't get this. It's lovely music and the opulent production is brilliantly excessive but it never amounts to anything. A competent young cast of actors and singers battle their way through with smiles on their faces but the script just never really worked. Structurally bizarre, I spent each extended play section waiting for the next, all too brief, masque. A good number in the audience loved this so I'm clearly missing something; I've just no idea what.