MUSIC

Bath Theatre Royal (Mon 17, Tue 18 Oct)

Something borrowed, something blue... English Touring Opera’s autumn tour was heavy on the old, yet it had something new up its sleeve too: a side order of sacred soliloquies at select venues en route. But, like a superstitious bride, the season had bagged the full foursome with a borrowed Fairy Queen (originally conceived for the Armonico Consort), and an eyecatching ‘blue thought in a blue shade’ – James Conway’s seriously stylish production of Handel’s Flavio. Tom Guthrie’s take on the Purcell promised much what with aerialists, dancers and puppets, all egging a typically elegant design by the late Roger Butlin. The trouble, however, started with the concept which relocated the action to Bedlam and tried to hitch it to a woolly idea that disintegrated every time a singer exhaled another set of words that had little bearing on the matter in hand. There were brilliant touches such as the ‘Plaint’ hauntingly sung beside a stripped hospital bed, its erstwhile occupant presumably no more; and the fluidity of the dance grew powerfully out of the music. James Conway however showed that less is more, trusting in Handel to fill the big blue box of Joanna Parker’s minimalist set with everything necessary. Conducted by Jonathan Peter Kenny whose arms thrashed about like a swimmer trying to evade a tsunami, the musical values were high too, Paula Sides’ Emilia the Queen of ETO’s all-too-short Bath time. (Paul Riley)

Copyright Paul Riley 2011