View from the jelly bean jar ( ROH '08-'09 season)

Isn’t the point about jelly beans the very fact that you can’t quite guess from their look what flavour they have? Part of the kick is expecting a certain thing and taking a chance on what you will actually taste :-) Like, say you like apple, you go for the green one … it could be apple and you’d be satisfied, but it could be lime and tart, or it could even be jalapeno if you are unlucky and you’ll burn yourself badly… or it could be margarita and that would be a plus!! Or you feel like toffee but it turns out to be peanut and you’re darn allergic to peanut! Or you dive in a for a kick of cappuccino and yuuuukk!! Oh no liquorice!!! Or you close your eyes and let you fingers play with the slippery beans and close your eyes and open your taste buds and nostrils and pure heavenly coconut!! Or French vanilla… mmmmmm….

You see, an opera season is just like a jelly bean jar! Full of yummy promises you can’t resist and you find yourself forever diving into the jar for yet one more little bean. And you sometimes get the expected, others the unexpected, sometimes the surprising and others the down right disgusting ;-)

Right now I am the proud owner of my first empty jelly bean jar! I’ve just finished my first full ROH season. People who have always lived at its doorsteps or who never get to experience the thrill will never quite grasp what it means to have such a house within reach and call it lightly “my House”. Now I feel shamelessly privileged, but never you mind, sure enough after two or three more I’ll be one of those constantly moaning and complaining while all the time enjoying one world-class performance after another ;-)))) But right now I am still not at that point of jaded indulgence, so let’s take a look back at the jelly beans which flavoured this past year’s jar…

The first and strongest taste on my musical senses this last year is THE WAGNER! Yes, my first ever Wagner! And what a Wagner this was, Hollander and Lohengrin. What a first time treat! So different in style as productions and yet so impressive. I can easily close my eyes and feel the drops in the storm on the Hollander curtain and see the body of the ship in dark wetness broken by specks of light. And it also was my first live encounter with Bryn Terfel’s rich and generous voice and stage persona.
The Lohengrin was definitely love at first sight! One that I know will last a lifetime. I hope that one day I will be saying .. this is my 54 Lohengrin :-) Happily smiling a toothless smile of old age and typing my thoughts on some virtual implant of a biological computer surely ;-)))) I think hearing that cast was a gift for a first timer, almost unbeatable. Certain lines from that 1 performance I will never forget! And the powerful and impressive Ortrud of Petra Lang! And the production, old as it may be was discrete enough to let the music live and shine through. And it also gave me my favourite conductor of the year: Semyon Bychkov I know my experience of Lohengrin would have never been as intense, had it not been for his sensitive and dedicated care for this score.

So The Wagner being the one that enriched me most from a musical point of view, what was the one which brought the most fun with it? Well there are two, very very easy to guess: Matilde and Barbiere :-) I guess they qualify somewhere between popcorn and pina colada :-) And yes of course, Juandi is the main reason why they are so much fun, but while he is the one that puts the smile on my face just thinking about these two operas, the musical moments that stay with me from these performances are Kurzak’s aria at the end of Mathile… I mean THAT COLORATURA!! A women with a spark that Matilde :-) And the small parts of joined coloratura between Juandi and Joyce DiDonato in the last act of Barbiere… that was a moment made in cotton candy heaven! Bliss, bliss, bliss, bliss…

While I am at it my women of the season IS Joyce DiDonato! Because she sang in spite of a broken foot.. but that is the least bit of it… because she was the first voice that greeted my ears in London and made me feel at home, because she made me see the Don Giovanni 3 times :-) because, because, because…. She is like the warmest, most addictive spice.. Definitely sizzling cinnamon!!

That Don Giovanni… ahhh.. my first performance of the first full season, that is forever eternalised on my wall.. umm, who is forever eternalised on my wall, MY DON, Simon Keenlyside, of course who else! But that was another perfect cast.. in fact the season began with that perfect cast and ended with another, that of Barbiere :-) This Don however delivered for me the most addictive interpretation of this aria ever: Deh vieni alla finestra…. Makes you want to jump right out of that window! :-)

The most interesting staging and most puzzling performance goes to… Die tote Stadt! One that leaves you wondering why, how, when, who??? And gives you a sleepless night or two :-) I still love Bruges though :-))) Kind of tangerine that one, you have to try it, at least once, but you’ll never quite know what to make of it.

Then there was the one “get exactly what you expect”- strawberry cheesecake of the most delicious and filling kind – Hoffmann! Rolando owns that part, just as Hoffmann possesses Rolando! I expected to enjoy it and see the best of Rolando Villazon and that is exactly what he delivered, no buts whatsoever! He was totally true to himself and his dedication and passion for singing. And for that he has my respect.

Not to say the rest wasn’t good or memorable , there were many fine moments and it was an agreeable string of flavours. Loved to hear the Turandot, Rigoletto, Trovatore, Boheme, Tosca, Traviatas, Ballo, Elisirs again :-) I appreciated Nucci’s Rigoletto, but was truly conquered by the bell like sound of Siurina as Gilda, was glad to see Roberto Alagna back on the ROH stage, lively and daring as ever, but the production was really meeeeehh! Boheme is a nice opera, but I am yet to hear one that will burn itself into my memory. Of Tosca, Ballo and Traviata I’ve written recently and I do take more fine singing from it, they were all above average by any standards. And by the way, Ramon Vargas is another of the strawberry cheesecake kind… smooth! And so is Antonio Pappano by the way, I’d always want to have my jar full of these, I need a dose every so often, at regular intervals :-)

The Elisir and Hansel and Gretel gave me La Damrau! Her Adina really had the extra depth! She’s…. umm.. I know! Strawberry daiquiri!!! Wicked and infectious :-)

Then there were all those flavours I wish I could have stuffed in my jar and never got a chance to… and I’ll be searching to taste them one day soon hopefully: Berg’s Lulu being my biggest regret…

So I’ve just emptied this jar and after gulping down a biiiiiig glass of water to clean my pallet am ready to open the next one :-)


Whatever the flavours will be this year, one thing is pretty clear, moaning and indigestion after overdosing aside... they are all of the gourmet variety!

Enjoy!