Live Performance Review: Oper Frankfurt performing Dido and Aeneas & Bluebeard's Castle (Edinburgh International Festival (E.I.F.) 2013), Saturday 24.08.2012 19:15, The Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Firstly to explain my attendance. I am familiar with a version of Dido's Lament as performed by Jeff Buckley, and find the piece moving enough that I was wishing to go and see the whole thing performed live. Bluebeard's Castle was a bonus.
Now to cover in reverse order to how they were performed.
Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle I found musically very interesting and the singing was fine. The staging was overly minimal, and the story I found to be suggesting of polygamy and misogynistic. I was at least able to follow the story this time as the 'supertitles' appeared to be handled well.
Purcell's Dido and Aeneas I was extremely impressed by, and am now about to gush. The costumes were gorgeous, the staging simple though smart and the use of lighting was great. The orchestra sounded grand and the singing was fantastic. The build up towards and the ending (including Dido's Lament) I found to be very moving resulting in deep breathing and watery eyes. Overall I found this to be a scrumptiously ravishing performance. If only I could be assured that all opera would affect in this way.
If it were just Dido and Aeneas by itself, I would have said that it was so good that it was beyond giving a rating to (and would have been the fourth performance of this caliber). As it is...
Rating: 10/10.
Now to cover in reverse order to how they were performed.
Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle I found musically very interesting and the singing was fine. The staging was overly minimal, and the story I found to be suggesting of polygamy and misogynistic. I was at least able to follow the story this time as the 'supertitles' appeared to be handled well.
Purcell's Dido and Aeneas I was extremely impressed by, and am now about to gush. The costumes were gorgeous, the staging simple though smart and the use of lighting was great. The orchestra sounded grand and the singing was fantastic. The build up towards and the ending (including Dido's Lament) I found to be very moving resulting in deep breathing and watery eyes. Overall I found this to be a scrumptiously ravishing performance. If only I could be assured that all opera would affect in this way.
If it were just Dido and Aeneas by itself, I would have said that it was so good that it was beyond giving a rating to (and would have been the fourth performance of this caliber). As it is...
Rating: 10/10.
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