I IMPERSONATION, ILLUSION AND INTRIGUE
Cottonwool clouds, a scatter of furnishings and devices, an historical cine digital camera, a noble arch and a few pillars and pretend bushes. On a Nineteen Twenties movie set, the director’s bawling megaphone shouts at ten invisible extras making an attempt to be a throng (‘seven years of fascism and they can’t even stroll straight”) . A chap on a hobbyhorse with wheels arrives dressed as Zeus whereas the director snaps “i’m refracting reality through the dreams of Achilles”. A chap in commedia del’arte magician’s striped pantaloons arrives saying “I am the maestro and the air is servant to me”, earlier than turning a flame right into a rose and levitating a desk whereas falling immediately and operatically in love with the director’s sister.
It’s an excellent begin, admit it. This little theatre beneath the thundering Charing Cross trains at all times fits an oddball musical, ideally of modest scale and large eccentricity, and this can be a forgotten late-18c comedian operetta about love, ladies’s rise, Enlightenment science and magic methods. Only retold and set within the 1920’s, with an Italian illusionist on the run from Mussolini and from the Catholic Church’s ban on conjurers. Got it to this point?
The 18c science-v-magic-v -religion theme stays, as does the basic operatic plot a few father disapproving of a suitor; and the music is the unique . It’s by Napoleon’s Kapelllmeister, Giovanni Paisiello, a composer of nice bounce and tunefulness admired by Catherine the Great and revered by Rossini.
The rework is a labour of affection and it reveals, in a great way. The new ebook and lyrics are by James P. Farwell, who when not writing is an exper on cyber-war and bio-defense, working in quite a few worldwide our bodies. And I let you know, if he brings the identical crafty and element to zapping digital villains as he does to this, they have to be careful. It’s an enterprise which hovers pleasingly netween pastiche, philosophy and homage to opera’s extra florid interval.
Directed by John Walton, it has six expert singers (notably Reka Jonas as Clarice) , a tiny however elegant band aloft, and magic methods devised by Harry de Cruz and carried out by Dan Smith as Julian aka the Great Agrofontido (How arduous should it’s to discover a respectable bel canto tenor who additionally belongs to the Magic Circle?)
It fizzes alongside, duets rising to quintets, spirited quarrels, ridiculous disguises, expostulation from an endearing James Paterson because the scientist-Count father, and the rising menace of the Cardinal’s pursuit. The dialogue is sharp, and the lyrics no extra absurd than any Italian-to-English translation of Rossini or Donizetti. Actually many are effectively formed to the music and sensible, within the patter somgs or gloriously ridiculous rhymes just like the Cardinal’s defence of torturing heretics with electrodes “Don’t be so prickly, it’s all done very slickly”. Some arias are beautiful, particularly from Jonas as Clarice. And one duet is gamely sung by the magician and his sidekick Pupupptino (Constantine Andronokou) dressed as Trojan slaves tied up again to again, in rags.
By the interval I used to be effectively content material with it as an entertaining absurdity . When your basso profundo is a fascist Cardinal, your scientific Count has an Einstein hairdo and your sopranos soar and bicker at velocity in a hair-pulling spat whereas the magician turns one other hankie right into a rose , who’s complaining? But correct magic crept up in he second half: Stuart Pendred’s villainous (and gloriously pompous) Cardinal prowling the gallery and the aisles with a torch searching for heretics, whereas the fleeing pair reappear in ridiculous drag to the panic of their womenfolk. But then the 2 basses sang Addison’s nice hymn “The Spacious Firmament” to Paisiello’s music with the backdrop of stars behind, and a shiver went by way of the home.
On went the stratagems and disguises, Julian and Pupuptino disguised as a pair of famend Greek scientists for a marvellously heartfelt debate between the Count and the conjurer about how science have to be keen to imagine within the unattainable..But for all of the jokes and the false whiskers it was working in direction of a dimming of lights and a sombrely splendid magic demonstration, levitating the golden globe from the orrery into the shimmering air. With the rapt watchers , us amongst them, wreathed in music from above. And I believed sure, that is what theatres are for. To be transported.
Which is greater than I used to be for some very long time caught at Colchester within the late prepare house, penning this. But it was effectively definitely worth the effort. The tixkets, by the best way, begin at £20 and the very best are £45. A steal.
charingcrosstheatre.co.uk to 21 Sept
score 4
and a musical mouse in respect to Giovanni Paisello
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