The Makropulos Curse

It's beginning to feel like that. Opening night, the lights went out and briefly stopped the show. The Saturday matinée did pass without event. Tuesday night was the Night of Three Emilias (Cheryl, Anke and Dinah Shearing), which I've heard described since as a "travesty" and a "trainwreck", among other things. Tonight, Cheryl's voice was back — or at least, enough of it to allow her to sing. She was a bit underpowered and, I thought, a bit distracted — understandable — but still delivered a top shelf performance, even if she isn't quite back in full health yet. But the curtain wouldn't work, so we had the enlightening, if somewhat disillusioning experience of watching the set changes. Emilia's Act Two throne, from which she receives all her suitors, kept sliding precariously about the place. And when Hauk-Sendorf brought her his wife's jewels in the final act, a string broke, and beads went flying everywhere.

So, not the best performance in the run so far, but still pretty fantastic. It sort of has to be. Funny thing with the ending. It seems the sort of coup de theatre which would work best by stealth: that the emergence of Emilia Marty Incarnate would have its greatest impact when unexpected. And yet I find it gets to me more every time I see it. Knowing it's coming only increases its power. The haunting strings which accompany her entry help as well, of course.

Audience too small, as usual, but nice and responsive — laughing at all the jokes, and a couple of the not-really-jokes as well, and clapping with suitable enthusiasm. Robert Gard's Hauk-Sendorf got his mid-act applause, as he ought. I'm hoping the web special will mean a fuller house for Tuesday's performance, and that our prima donna will be back to full, fearsome strength by then too.

And no, it hasn't escaped my notice that almost everything I've posted in the last couple of weeks has been tagged with the category "Cheryl Barker", but then, what did you expect? Diva is my (and this blog's) raison d'être.

Comments

[jimmy]

I went last night and was sitting a few rows from the front - a couple of those beads fell into the orchestra pit and you could hear them bouncing around. watching the sets being changed was pretty intersting, its a shame they didnt have to change the back wall so you could see how they do it etc. did you notice catherine carby crying quite a lot at the curtain call? it must be quite emotional to sing, don't you agree?

[Thomasina]

One letter to the editor in the SMH described OA's use of a from-the-side-of-the-stage voice as a breach of ethics. Clearly he'd never heard of "the show must go on"!

(And no doubt if the show had been cancelled as he suggested it should, he would have been writing in to complain about having been left in the lurch after an unnecessary trip into the Opera House!)

[marcellous]

"The show must go on" is a tricky ethical principle, since on one reading it simply means "no refunds." The unanswered question is why AH was unable to assume the role properly: was it really just a question of dress-making alterations? No proper explanation was offered, which is sort of par for the course for OA at present.

[Sarah]

Whereas at Angel Place, when Peter C-W pulled out of the second recital, and the show did go on, with just Cheryl and Piers, Musica Viva did offer refunds. But perhaps that comes down to a change in the fundamental nature of the performance on offer (not that it was significantly altered) rather than just a change of cast. Of course, the fact that securing one's refund required walking conspicuously out of the hall before the concert began made it unlikely anyone would take them up on it.

It does seem odd that Anke couldn't just take the role over completely - and that no explanation (not even an invented one) was offered. Same thing happened last year in Gianni Schicchi - Henry Choo mimed while Kanen Breen sang from the side. Again, no reason given.

[wanderer]

It’s a bit of a rock and a hard place for them. Janacek is not easy to cast.

They seem to be using star power and high production values to get reasonable audience numbers for these less popular works. That’s good. (Worked for Billy Budd - the covers for those 3 roles would be worthy gossip) The problem is the run isn’t long enough to double cast, and the star power too skewed for it to get reasonable numbers for the second anyway. Melbourne used to complain about getting second castings from Sydney, as in AH singing Emily next year down there.

Moreover, it’s a hard sing, hard to learn, even or more so, in English. So who’s hanging around here with this role under their belt? – not many I’d guess.

Anyway, I applaud them, and if this is the only way, better not get into too much of a snit when a wheel falls of the (very good) cart occasionally, or we may not get it at all.

(Similar situation with Grimes and Skelton next year; 6 performances, Sydney only – who can sing Grimes, be in Sydney at the time, and not get on the billboard?).

[Thomasina]

My guess is that it's a $-motivated unwillingness to provide the necessary rehearsal time etc. for a cover (as opposed to a second cast member) who might never appear during the run. It's probably not seen as a justifiable investment, even though you could argue that the investment in the singer who thus gets to learn the role and the production is never wasted. (That would be the German attitude.) This is something that Bruce Martin wrote about from time to time in Opera~Opera: the whole issue of there not being covers and understudies at all or of their not being adequately prepared to take over the role in its entirety.

For my part, I'd be inclined to approach such events philosophically and seek what's interesting or revealing about the performance as presented rather than griping about "ethics". Singers get sick. Eben ist das Leben. That said, I do hope the Lemsip Benevolent Fund has done its good work by Tuesday evening!

[Sarah]

Re: Tuesday evening, all signs point to yes.

[Max]

Oh it's so easy isn't it. To sit back behind your computer screen and voice your ill-informed, gossip-mongering opinions, and to happily relate descriptions such as 'trainwreck' and 'travesty', snigger snigger behind your hand. "Oh Darling - mwah mwah - it was TERRIBLE! They had someone singing from the side of the stage!!" FOR GOD'S SAKE, WELCOME TO LIVE THEATRE!!!!!

When at the ROH Covent Garden in May this year, watching 'Simone Boccanegra' with a soprano who couldn't sing, and a Boccanegra who's voice gave out at the end of Act 2, we had to wait until the character of Paulo was taken off-stage and executed before that singer could come round to the side of stage, and yes, with music stand and score, complete the performance because he was the Boccanegra understudy. This, at the Garden; oh dear.....

No one wants to be in put in that position; no one goes out to do a bad job, but sometimes it is the best way to deal with a situation that otherwise would lead to the curtain not going up in the first place. And every artist knows that sometimes, it's just not your choice!

Only 'wanderer' shows any understanding of the way these things happen. The rest of you are so caught up in your little bit of 'ooh aah it went wrong', that you evidently have no idea of how or why these decisions are made, so should just shut up regarding things about which you know nothing.

That Anke Hoeppner is literally called a second rate artist is utterly disgraceful, even if as part of another argument. We all work for years to achieve what we do in this profession; we don't just wander out and sing like so many of you blogger queens seem to think we do.

And yes, the lights DID go out on opening night but for no more than 15 seconds. If you were really watching, if you were really there, you may have noticed that that Cheryl Barker and Peter Wedd were still lit by follow-spots, but of course I've not seen any mention of this, oh no. These had been arranged before the show by the SOH (not OA) lighting operators because they'd been having trouble with the lighting system computers pre-show. The show stopped only because Richard Hickox could no longer see the score he was conducting from. Oh, but it's much easier to carp and bitch isn't it dear.

While at the Staatsoper in Berlin in April, a performance of Tannhauser (so beautifully mispronounced by that now-guru of opera Alan Jones the other day), came to a halt when a fire-alarm forced the evacuation of the theatre. When we returned after the all clear, the show recommenced from the top of the scene and was greeted with warm and supportive applause and calls, something singularly lacking in the current discussions.

Blogging like this is a disgrace, and with comments generally limited to the titter of excitment about Ted Rhodes taking his shirt off, or the colour of somebody's shoes, it is a demonstration of just how deeply shallow your understanding of the artform really is.

[Sarah]

Shame you misread/misunderstood me. All the above is so affectionate you wouldn't believe it. I ADORE the show, it's been utterly wonderful despite all these trivial matters. That's the point of this post: that it isn't really cursed at all! The title is a joke! Honestly...do you think I'd see it six times if all I wanted to do was carp?! I thought all this was obvious. I guess if you're not reading it in context of everything else I've posted about Makropulos - and I have to assume you're not - then maybe it's not.

I have actually blogged already about the lights, hence the brief mention here...and this is so far from the attack you think it is. I did notice the spotlight. Hard not to from Row F (yes, I really was there and really was watching). Actually we initially thought it was some kind of oddly timed arty effect, until we heard Richard's jolly "bedevilled by electricity!" and Cheryl & Peter W broke character to resume their places. It was all sort of charming, and made their instant return to towering form all the more impressive.

The "trainwreck" comments etc. were other people's. I quoted them because as for me, I had a FABULOUS time even when she didn't sing, because I'm NUTS about the show and NUTS about Cheryl even when she's silent. But since nobody I talk to about it seems to agree with me (because none are nuts like me) I thought I'd give them their voice.

Neither I, nor anybody who has commented on this post, has called Anke Hoppner a second rate singer as far as I can see. The suggestion, as I read it, was merely that were this production to be moved to Melbourne, she might be in the second cast.

But why oh why am I devoting so many words to defending myself from baseless accusations. If my deep affection for OA isn't obvious by now then it's a losing battle. And incidentally, I'm not a "blogging queen", at least not in the sense I assume you mean it. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

[jimmy]

good on you sarah! :)

[david]

What a silly, silly post from Max! A lovely counter Sarah to him-well written and articulated! Keep up the good work and your constant advocation of opera in this country.

[marcellous]

I'm still trying to work out what provoked Max's vitriolic comment, let alone what justified it. No need to worry about opera queens when you have drama queens like that.

Maybe there is something a little tragic about people blogging the minutiae, but it's more a question of besotted tragic-ness than anything deserving the thundering denunciation delivered. If we didn't appreciate live performance we wouldn't be there or here.

As for Teddy and his shirt-off moments (not to mention the pants-slung-low ones in BB), don't tell me that isn't something which either he or the company cultivate when it suits them.

Finally, what part of "literally" does Max understand?