Original director
David Pountney
Revival director
Quinny Sacks
and
Elaine Tyler-Hall
Conducted by
Paul Daniel
Titania
Joan Rodgers
The Indian Boy
Arthur Pita
Oberon
Tom Randle
Puck
Nikola Kefetzakis
Theseus/
Hymen
Mark Richardson
Tanterabogus
Carolyn Sampson
Trash
Mary Nelos
Boggart
Mark Le Brocq
Buggen
Ryland Angel
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The Fairy Queen
by Henry Purcell
English National Opera
London Coliseum
12 June - 15 July 2002
There is sublime music in this set of masques, adapted with great looseness from A Midsummer Night's Dream and played here – as was doubtless intended by Purcell and the anonymous first adapter during the reign of William and Mary – as farce. The most exquisite musical moment is Titania's "Plaint" in the Seventh Masque; and it is not a coincidence that the star of this production is the beautiful and beautifully-voiced Joan Rodgers as the Fairy Queen herself. Her performance, and a genuinely funny and convincing Drunken Poet played and sung by Jonathan Best – a Drunken Poet staggering about the auditorium, falling into the orchestra pit, taking over the conducting, and all the while singing extremely well – are the two best things in the whole.
Given that the cast, and their singing and dancing, were generally very good, it is disappointing to have to complain: but the trouble with this Fairy Queen is that the farce gets out of hand, and degenerates into a knockabout, burlesque, self-lampooning mess. What begins as amusing becomes tiresome. Titania preserves her dignity, and Tom Randle's Michael-Jackson-lookalike Oberon is consistent throughout, but the large cast and incoherent structure of the Fairy Queen make it imperative that discipline be kept in the main lines of narrative, and this failed – not least with the mortals, it sometimes being difficult to say who was mistakenly with whom and which of the two delightful countertenors was which.
The costume design was spectacular, but the stage design was a disappointment, the enticing demands of the text scarcely being met. Oberon's Chinese wedding-land was depicted by means of three visual clichés of recent and traditional Chinoiserie, so Titania's demolition of the fantasy came to nothing because there was scarcely any fantasy to demolish. The most enjoyable bit of design was King Theseus's bedroom during his birthday celebrations – they constitute the Sixth Masque – but silly clowning by the "children" bringing his presents spoiled the effect.
In sum, the evening was cumulatively a disappointment, although the good things – Joan Rodgers, the Drunken Poet, some of the music, some of the costumes, one or two of the dances – were very good indeed. The revival was directed by two choreographers, and the thought occurs that perhaps input from a theatre or opera director might have helped, for the problem came from the fact that the temptation too much yielded to in this production was to stomp and mime rather than let the music do the work.
AC Grayling
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