ETO’s Dardanus ‘doesn’t really catch fire’

Dardanus

Hackney Empire, London                                                        On tour until Nov 7 

Rating:

Jean-Philippe Rameau was a giant of French 18th-century music. But his international reputation lags behind near contemporaries J S Bach, Handel and Vivaldi. Many British music lovers are unfamiliar with his music.

So Dardanus is a surprise choice for English Touring Opera, more suited to an opera festival than a grand tour taking in more than 20 venues.

Rameau was a master of most musical genres, from keyboard music to ballet. He also wrote extensively, and with great insight, about music. 

Rameau's Dardanus (starring Grant Doyle, Galina Averina and Anthony Gregory, l-r above) is a surprise choice for English Touring Opera, more suited to an opera festival than a grand tour

Rameau’s Dardanus (starring Grant Doyle, Galina Averina and Anthony Gregory, l-r above) is a surprise choice for English Touring Opera, more suited to an opera festival than a grand tour

It’s good, then, that the expert conductor here, the Cambridge-based Jonathan Williams, is an authority on the composer.

Rameau didn’t turn to opera until he was in his 50s. One of his great gifts was to combine opera and dance. And a key reason why this opera is such a surprise choice is that the dance element is almost entirely cut out. 

Such dance music that remains is merely the background to the cast just clumping around. A serious mistake.

It is well cast: Anthony Gregory and Galina Averina are effective star-crossed lovers, Dardanus and Iphise. Grant Doyle is first-class as her angry dad, and Frederick Long an eloquent Ismenor the magician.

But despite Williams’s authority, and excellent playing from the small period ensemble, the Old Street Band, the evening doesn’t really catch fire. 

It is well cast: Anthony Gregory (left with Frederick Long) and Galina Averina are effective star-crossed lovers but despite this, and fine playing from the Old Street Band, it doesn't catch fire

It is well cast: Anthony Gregory (left with Frederick Long) and Galina Averina are effective star-crossed lovers but despite this, and fine playing from the Old Street Band, it doesn’t catch fire

And it isn’t helped by director Douglas Rintoul setting it in today’s war-torn Middle East. A bit of a cliché, that, and ugly to look at, without any of the 18th-century grace that Rameau would surely have considered essential, even in a piece characterised by ‘strength and martial vigour’ (The Grove Dictionary Of Music).

The movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn said no one in Hollywood ever lost money underestimating public taste. But what about overestimating it, as ETO is maybe doing this time?

More of a worry. Especially when Dardanus’s main running mate on the tour, alongside eight performances of Bach’s B Minor Mass, is Handel’s Julius Caesar, cut into two parts, in order to include every note of music Handel wrote, including a lot of frankly tedious recitatives. 

And presenting it in that way means about 45 minutes of music from Part I are included at the beginning of Part II. A real test of the audience’s resolve.

I’m a big fan of English Touring Opera and its general director James Conway, so do go. The company is worth supporting, even when the choice of repertoire, as here, leaves quite a lot to be desired.

englishtouringopera.org.uk  

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