King Saul goes mad with envy over his subjects' appreciation of David slaying Goliath. Consequences are fatal.
2h 57min | Music | TV Movie August 2015 | Color, WS
Director: Francois Roussillon
Stage Director: Barrie Kosky
Ivor Bolton ... Conductor
Stars: Christopher Purves, Iestyn Davies, Lucy Crowe
Watched
online,
alternate, excellent print.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01E7ZFPF8/
First performed in 1739.
Had to add this to IMDb.
Started watching it, was shocked by Iestyn Davies (David), who is a countertenor, same range as contralto (female). Read about the opera on
Wikipedia since it was not in my biggest opera books. The role was written for a contralto (David is young here), and traditionally performed by contralto, but first performed by a tenor due to illness.
This is written as an oratorio, since it was illegal in England at the time to dramatize the Bible onstage. So all the bizarre costumes, set, dramatics are NOT from any historic source. And that is what I dislike enough to give this a 6-.
I like hearing a big chorus singing classical music, but I'm not a baroque fan. So the jury is out whether I'd like this as an oratorio, or with a less avant garde staging.
The first thing that was off-putting: the chorus, which gets to do lots of movement, was dressed in costumes appropriate to 1739. Huh? This is ~1000 BCE.
Annoying: tough to figure out who's who, even if you read about the opera beforehand. David & Saul were clear enough, but we have 2 young women and 2 youngish men, so 4 characters were a puzzle to me. The 2 women were both daughters of Saul. The young man with long nails was the High Priest; the normal-appearing one was Jonathan, son of Saul.
The next thing that was mildly off-putting: passionate kisses between inappropriate pairs. Remember, NONE of this is in the libretto. Saul kissed his daughter very firmly and very long on the lips; she was hitting him, and finally pushed him away. Saul & David embraced almost erotically, but settled on David comforting Saul. Jonathan planted a long passionate kiss on David after tackling him to the ground.
Then comes the nauseating part, and I don't get nauseous very often, not even over reality. Saul consults the Witch of Endor, played by a man with a light but definite beard (ok, it's an old witch), who emerges (after Saul requests Samuel?) with large breasts. Not only does Saul suckle at one, but he emerges with "milk" spilled from his mouth down his chest and doesn't wipe it away while singing. Then the witch decides to add more to the top of his head. I was completely unable to pay attention to the subtitles to see what was being said, and that likely set up the next scene where Saul was killed in battle with Jonathan. It was grotesque.
One thing I liked very much was the 6-person dance chorus and their choreography. It was often playful, jester-like, but involved some real dancing. Also, the huge vocal chorus and cast got to do some macarena-style mass movement. That was entertaining.
Mildly distracting: the stage floor was covered with black stuff that stuck to the players (who were frequently down on the floor). It appeared to be something like charcoal chips, but not dusty. Really distracting: at the beginning of act 2, they had lit candles over most of the stage, and at least 1 actor had to walk among them very carefully (they're in that charcoal stuff). I'm wondering where the fire extinguishers are. Then the chorus gets to come around and extinguish candles with their hands (protected how?) and collect them. Was the libretto/score so boring there we needed a diversion? Didn't like it.
One nice bit: when others were singing about Saul's madness, he was onstage with only his head visible, and 6 hands, likely the dancers, each had 1 hand stroking his head in a creepy fashion. That was a good representation of crazy.
This "creativity" is mostly the work of the stage director, Barrie Kosky, per the intermission featurette.
Glyndebourne Festival Opera, cond. Bolton; 6-
