Tears succeeded laughter at Longborough Festival Opera last weekend with impressive productions of two stalwarts of the Italian repertoire on successive nights, both in the charge of young conductors making their first appearance at this popular annual event.

Friday’s feast of melody came in the shape of Donizetti’s hilarious Don Pasquale, under the baton of Thomas Blunt. What an apposite piece of programming, it might have been, incidentally, had LFO gone for the same composer’s L’ Elisir d’Amore with its references to the legend of Tristan and Isolde and their fatal love potion. Longborough’s season began this year with Wagner’s take on the tale, which was written three decades later.

Saturday saw the opening of Verdi’s even more famously tuneful Rigoletto, in the charge of Gad Kadosh, a young French-Israeli who was making his UK debut in the pit. Three cheers for his spirited handling of the musical resources here.

The work, of course, contains the best-known song in the whole of opera, the lecherous Duke’s La donna e mobile. The composer is said to have withheld the number from rehearsal until the last possible moment for fear it would become well known ahead of the first night. As it was, the tune was whistled by the delivery boys of Venice hours after its unveiling.

In Pasquale, a clever conceit by director Alan Privett has been to supply the action with a framing device. This comes in the shape of the filming of the opera at, one supposes, some period closely following the invention of the talkie. This means the performers - in all cases excellent - are playing singers who in turn show us the characters in the opera. Baritone David Stout, for instance, in the title role presents us with a well-observed caricature of a demanding Italian star with a comical fondness for the bottle.

There is amusing action meanwhile involving the actors and crew, some of it amorous and some concerning ructions over money. The film company would appear to be having trouble meeting its bills.

Don Pasquale itself, of course, supplies tremendous opportunity for laughter in the classic plot of an old man making a fool of himself over a woman. Pasquale hits on Norina (Susanna Hurrell), believing her to be the mild-mannered sister, fresh from the convent, of his friend Dr Malatesta (Gary Griffiths), who is playing pander to him.

In fact, the crafty medic is really working in the cause of Pasquale’s nephew Ernesto (Jesus Alvarez) whose romance with Norina has been outlawed by uncle. Once the old man’s marriage (a fake one of course) has been contracted, the saintly bride turns into the missus from hell, shrewish and exceptionally lavish in her spending. But Ernesto is ready, should the call come, to relieve uncle of his problem . . .

The production is notable for the stage-dominating work of the appropriately named – I think it’s padding – Mr Stout who is both wide and tall. In Rigoletto, too, there is a towering figure around in the shape of the baritone in the title role.

While one is used to seeing the jester as a crouched, cowering figure, this hunchback stands head and shoulders over everyone on stage. During his ructions with the louche members of the Duke of Mantua’s court, you get the impression he could see the lot off with one hand tied behind his back.

Oxford Mail:

  • Martin Kronthaler as Rigoletto

Here there is also a directorial slant to the action from Caroline Clegg, with the duke (Robyn Lyn Evans) transformed into ‘Duke’, the head of an eponymousl car manufacturers at whose model launch the drama begins – complete with a huge silver lady mascot in Lara Booth’s design. Quite what a car firm requires from a jester is not perhaps a question to be pondered over, as one sits back and enjoys the show.

Again, strong singing performances abound, including that of soprano Andrea Tweedale, as Rigoletto’s beloved daughter Gilda, though the first night found her in some difficulty early on. It was a mistake, I felt, to have her rising so powerfully from the sack in the closing moments of the opera, though Verdi’s vocal demands at this point do suggest that a certain vigour is required from the dying woman.

She has, of course, willingly brought upon herself death at the hands of knife-for-hire Sparafucile (Timothy Dawkins). This was the fate intended by Rigoletto for the duke following her capture by his retinue and ravishment by him.

Her forgiving spirit always surprises, but that’s opera for you.

There are further performances of Don Pasquale on July 11, 15 and 19 and Rigoletto on July 10, 13, 16 and 18. Handel’s Xerxes is on July 25 and 26.

Box office: 01451 830292, lfo.org.uk