Opera North in Newcastle

Three operas at the Theatre Royal all showed Opera North at pretty close to its best.

The first I saw was "La Voix Humaine", Poulenc's extraordinary and harrowing one act opera for a solo singer. It portrays the last minutes of a woman intent on suicide after her lover has deserted her for another. There was an excellent vocal and dramatic performance from Joan Rodgers as The Woman, who had me hanging on her every word - assisted by her excellent diction. She was not assisted by the loud and intrusive orchestral playing under Paul Watkins. The production by Deborah Warner was generally very good, although I could not understand the significance of the large white screen over the stage. And why did it start to tilt in the opera's final moments?

The following night was "Peter Grimes", which had gathered florid critical praise, including being described as 'the operatic event of the year'. If not finding it quite that, this was an excellent production and performance. Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts was a shaven-headed brute of a Grimes complemented by a feminine and gentle Ellen from Giselle Allen. Christopher Purves was an excellent Balstrode and the show was almost stolen by a wonderfully sleazy wide-boy Ned Keene from Roderick Williams.

Phyllida Lloyd's production started before the music and continued after it finished. That rather set the tone, with constant activity on stage, characters often on stage who should not be and action bustling through all the interludes. As always with this producer there was much that was clever and full of insight (and even wit - the wonderful 'tango' moment between Balstrode and Auntie), I just wish that there could have been the occasional moment of calm. And why did we have an elaborate scene of the villagers building Grimes's hut during the Passacaglia and the apprentice falling to his death in full view of the village inspection party?

Opera North's music director, Richard Farnes, conducted and produced a generally fast and fiery account of the score. He also produced moments of calm and quietness and the singers could always be heard. Diction was generally of a very high standard.

My third night was another new production: "Rigoletto". Alan Opie was listed to sing the title role but was unwell and so Olafur Sigurdarson sang instead and did very well indeed. A good firm baritone voice (without the extra high notes, it must be said) and excellent projection of text and character. Another find was the Gilda, Henriette Bonde-Hansen. A fine lyric soprano, she looked good, acted well and even had a proper trill. The Duke was Rafael Rojas, a bit rough and ready but he had all the notes for this very difficult part.

The conductor was Martin Andre and, again, I am happy to report a good deal of sensitivity accompanying the singers while not being in the least afraid of letting the orchestra 'sing out' when appropriate. The orchestral playing in both this and in Grimes was excellent.

The production was by Charles Edwards, more noted as a designer. It was modern (set in a 1950s world of porn and organized crime). It provided no great new insights but nor did it do any damage to the story. Maybe I am a bit unshockable where Rigoletto is concerned: the last performance I saw was Doris Doerrie's absurd Munich production set on the Planet of the Apes...

One or two quibbles aside, three very satisfying nights from Opera North.