Stolen away by the Fairies (...I wish)

[tamaranth]

I am happy to report that Thomas Randle (or 'Tom', as he now prefers) looks just as good in leather trousers and a long red velvet frock-coat as he did the last time I saw him as Oberon in Purcell's The Fairy Queen at the ENO, five years ago. His voice is better, if anything, and my god the man can dance: it's very cheering to be reminded that opera needn't mean statuesque types in formal clothing standing around and striking poses.

This is Borderland: The Opera: a punk vision of Purcell's expanded incidental music for Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, which bears so little resemblance to the original that my friend Beatrice confessed herself utterly at a loss as to the plot.

"Never mind," I said, "this is opera: it's traditional not to have a clue."

"But it's Purcell, so at least it's originally in English," said Maureen. "It hasn't had to be translated."

"And you still won't be able to understand more than one word in ten." Which was unfair of me, really: it's the acoustics to blame.

These fairies are not at all twee: this is more your Seelie & Unseelie Court than anything likely to lounge around in flowers. They're long-haired, dreadlocked, and reminded me very much of the countercultural cast of Gwyneth Jones' wonderful Bold as Love (which is much on my mind right now - see tomorrow's entry, probably). Tom Randle moves with a sort of insectile grace: there's something not quite human about his demeanour, and his innocent - no, amoral - glee at the torments inflicted on the mortals by his court. He's a tempestuous Oberon: Titania remains far more dignified, but Oberon has charisma. He has an open, expressive face that conveys Oberon's playfulness as much as his fury at the Fairy Queen herself, who's clearly more powerful than him.

There's a lot of instrumental music in this opera, so plenty of dancing: the ENO dancers can be pretty spectacular when they're given free reign and a spotlight: I found this much easier to follow, in terms of dance-grammar or whatever it is, than the last ballet I saw. I should also mention the Seventies Disco rendition of a splendid tenor/counter-tenor duet: and the drunken poet lurching along the front row of the stalls and interfering with the conductor: and the smashed harpsichord in which Titania (eventually) takes her rest. And a birthday party organiser who is clearly green_amber. The music is wonderful: the plot is tenuous: there are rats on the walls, and the butlers have little silver angel wings.

It's playing for at least another week.

Comments

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

And you're going to see it again, aren't you?

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I most certainly am. Thus proving that it's good. Honest!

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

To the best of my recollection, I've seen this production three times with tamaranth over the last few years, which means I have a delightful collection of opera programmes, each only subtly different from the last. Oh, and I heard it on the radio last week, which probably doesn't count, but the acoustics are probably better.

I am becoming depressingly expert on the ENO's stable of countertenors.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

Borderlands? I wonder if they've been looking at the Terri Windling/Charles de Lint/Steven Boyett/Emma Bull/Will Shetterly &tc books about Bordertown where elves meet rock and roll...

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

I didn't find the Bordertown stories fluffy; I always thought they were mostly dark and the wannabes very sad... I think there have been a fair few stories that update the view of the Seelie and Unseelie court over the last few years away from the Rackham tweeness, but if you want chill go back to Goblin Market ;-)

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

My memory may be at fault, but having read through the entire Borderlands canon over a weekend, I had a sense of being stifled with candy floss, something I didn't find with the originals. Sad, maybe, especially with all the wannabes but I found the stories ultimately unsatisfying. To me there was a sense of the writers all being way too in love with their creations, and what started as good entertainment eventually became more than I could reasonably stomach. I think they just didn't work for me.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

I didn't like the very last collection so much because too many of the stories felt too similar...

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

That was certainly what I meant to reference! But there's little specific visual element to those books: if anything, it's more reminiscent of parts of Sandman. In particular, the girl in the tailcoat (Assipattle) reminded me very strongly of Delirium in looks, and Death in demeanour.

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, I was thinking about Bold as Love when I was watching it last night ... there was a dancer, the girl in the tail coat in Oberon's party, who I thought would have done just nicely as Fiorinda, and we could have probably shaken Sage and Ax out of the rest of Oberon's entourage. Not, I think, out of Titania's.

I'm still not sure what I thought about last night's performance. I am quite sure, though, that they have tinkered with the production for this revival, and quite considerably. I recall there being much more nastiness in it than there is now, more erotic content too. Everything seems to have been softened, smoothed off. The Birthday of a Curmudgeon seemed to be world-weary now rather than its previous mixture of greed and ingratitude, and I'm sure I remember a series of events going on in the background prior to each masque the last two times, one of which was the drowning of a naked girl which I found incredibly disturbing.

And something I noticed this time and hadn't really considered before, which you highlight in part. Titania is obviously more powerful, but in many ways also more mature, more aloof. The breaking of the harpischord after her night with the donkey and her subsequent realisation of what had happened seems to me to reflect as much as anything her loss of self-control, a loss that she finds very difficult to come to terms with. And the relationship between Oberon and Titania often seems to be that of mother and son rather than consorts.

But still a good production, lovely music, and yes, Thomas Randle dancs beautifully, acts beautifully too ... as does Ryland Angel, one of the two countertenors, obviously enjoying his role as a member of Oberon's entourage. One of the things I most enjoy about this production is the dancing ... I like the butlers with their little angel wings, and the two mysterious chaps in black tulle and curly wigs.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Oberon is Ax. Really. I went home and started reading Castles made of Sand (first 100 pages are great!) and just couldn't get that connection out of my head. Of course, Ax's coat is leather not velvet ...

I don't think I could pick Sage out very easily, though: but I agree with you about Fiorinda.

Yes, Titania is more mature, isn't she? There's not much of an erotic charge between her and Oberon, either: he's more mischievous, more (heh) puckish...

Fairies and Sand Castles

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

I meant to mention this yesterday afternoon and forgot, but I wonder if we shouldn't simply think of them as Oberon, Titania and Puck ... as well as perhaps thinking of them as Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. I'm inclined to think we should see them as the latter group, but the fairies work quite well too.