⭐⭐⭐
The Usher Hall
Part of the Anderson Opera Series at EIF, this was Maxim Emelyanychev conducting the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus in the fourth instalment of their Mozart opera series. Don Giovanni and I got off to a rocky start.
The first half was, if I’m honest, a struggle. Opera’s an art form I respect and can appreciate, but it’s not always where my heart goes first, and when the lights are low and the singing is beautiful but the story hasn’t grabbed me yet, my eyelids have a habit of getting ideas of their own. I caught a very relaxing fifteen minutes somewhere in there. Not exactly the mark of a gripping first act, but these things happen.
I think part of my issue was the format itself. This was concert opera, singers in gowns and tuxedos rather than full costume, and I just don’t connect with it the way I do when there’s a full theatrical production going on. Give me sets, give me costumes, give me some glitz and glam and I’m far more likely to stay locked in. Something about the staging and spectacle of it all just does more for me than a row of singers in front of an orchestra, however good they are.
The second half, to its credit, pulled things back. I stayed awake for the whole thing, which feels like it should count for something, though I’ll admit I was clocking the time once or twice. The singing throughout was genuinely excellent, with one small exception that felt more about power than technique, and Emelyanychev conducted with real energy, pulling the score up off the page and making it feel freshly discovered rather than just another run through the classics.
Special mention has to go to the couple sitting behind us, who spent the entire performance coughing, spluttering and generally sharing their germs with the whole of the Usher Hall like Giovanni himself sharing his affections. Seduction, trickery and now apparently a chest infection too. They had masks. We know they had masks, because they were both wearing them at the interval while queueing for ice cream, which is possibly the least useful time to wear a mask in the entire building. I fully expect to be coughing up a lung of my own by next week courtesy of Edinburgh’s most generous audience members. Come on, folks. Do better.
Bryan’s been trying to educate me on opera for years and I am slowly coming round to it. What I need, I think, is opera with a plot I can actually follow without needing a spider diagram, a slide rule and an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of who’s betrayed who. Give me a story that just gets on with it and I’m there.