Dell'antro magico

And so to the opera. For once it wasn’t Opera North, but rather the English Touring Opera. The latter seem to specialise in works from the Baroque period which have small casts and, even more importantly, small orchestras.  They are in Harrogate for a few days – three different operas over three nights at the Harrogate Theatre plus a concert performance of Vivaldi in a church – and I went along to the first night. The piece in question was Il Giasone by Cavalli, written and first performed in Venice in 1649.

 

Our hero is still recognisably the Golden Fleece man although sadly neither libretto nor staging owes anything to Ray Harryhausen. The onstage Jason here is a lover not a fighter although quite what the women see in him I’m not sure. Not only is he a two-timing cad willing to murder (or more accurately get Hercules to murder for him) if it suits his plans, but he’s also a countertenor; and we all know what that would have meant back in seventeenth century Venice.
 

Musically, it’s almost all recitatif, but there are some rather fine arias and ensemble pieces, the highlight for me being Medea’s aria towards the end of the first act (they were performing Ronald Eyre’s two act translation) while she carries out some witchcraft aimed at protecting her lover in his upcoming fight with the dragon. This is also the highlight of the staging with books bursting into flames and the appearance of a snake adding to the allure of the rather fetching Hannah Pedley.

I say he’s her lover because although the prologue is set at their wedding (where oddly although her father Apollo is in attendance – and looking for all the world as if he is about to enter a Charles Dickens lookalike competition - some other unidentified chap gives her away) at the end Jason leaves her and returns to his wife. Perhaps they did things differently in Ancient Greece.

The prophetic deity of the Delphic oracle

Anyway, this was my first encounter with ETO and I was very impressed. The singers and musicians were strong and the choice of opera was spot on. I’m not sure I am up to three trips in such quick succession, but I shall certainly look to catch them on their next visit.