RCS, 11/05/2015

Vaughan Williams : Sir John in Love

Chorus and Orchestra
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Timothy Dean

The chances of seeing any of Vaughan Williams's operas (and there are 5 completed ones) are, at best, slim - next to nil outside of the UK, low enough even inside it - but the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has been working up to these performances for quite some time now, as the final section of its staging of a Merry Wives trilogy of operas.  Having done the Verdi, then the Nicolai, finally it was the turn of Vaughan Williams's interpretation of Shakespeare's comedy.

The seeds of the work date right back to 1913, when Vaughan Williams was writing incidental music for several plays put on during the Shakespeare Festival at Stratford-on-Avon.  These included Henry IV Part 2 and The Merry Wives of Windsor.  Ten years later, he began work on the opera in earnest, and it was first performed at the Royal College of Music in 1929, and received its first full, professional performance (after some revision) in 1946.

It's a bit invidious to compare this to Verdi's Falstaff.  Vaughan Williams himself did not particularly approve of Falstaff, though his objections appear to have been directed more at Boito's libretto than Verdi's music.  Certainly Boito made Falstaff himself the pivotal character to an extent that he is not even in Shakespeare, never mind in any other adaptations, and that is part of the glory of Verdi's comic masterpiece.  However, it is true that it's no longer particularly English, and that is where Vaughan Williams makes his mark.

Vaughan Williams kept very close to the original text, but with interpolations of poets more or less contemporary with Shakespeare, as well as from different Shakespeare plays, to provide more structured numbers for his characters and the chorus.  There is a good deal of actual folk-music used in Sir John, but over and above that, there is Vaughan Williams's unique sound world, wholly distinctive, and wholly suited to the rhythm and flow of the English language.  Because Vaughan Williams has kept almost all of the characters, and most of the sub-plots of the original, it can get a trifle confused at times (and it has to be recognised that the Merry Wives is not Shakespeare's greatest comedy) but it's an ensemble piece aglow with melody, and just tinted enough with something darker, and something a little mystical, to prevent it from becoming bland.

An ensemble piece is precisely what we got from the young cast at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  All of the singing was of fine quality throughout, with particular moments standing out more than individual voices - the biting wit of the trio "Sigh no more, ladies", the sighing, antique style of Dr. Caius's "Vrai dieu d'amours" (in French in the text), or the magical opening of "There is an old tale" - and the quality of acting was particularly good, lively and very natural all round.  The "wives" - Heather Jamieson as Mistress Page, Eirlys Myfanwy Davies as Mistress Ford and Penelope Cousland as Mistress Quickly - were a treat, gleeful and a tad bitchy.

Anne Page's appearance for much of the opera as a kind of St. Trinian's schoolgirl was a bit disconcerting (as were a few other quirks of this 1950s set production by Benjamin Davis), but Hazel McBain sang the part sweetly.  Her Fenton was Luke Sinclair, occasionally a little tight in sound, but suitably ardent.  I found Colin Murray similarly slightly constricted vocally, and he never quite conjured up the full extent of Ford's bottled fury at the thought of being cuckolded, but later, reconciled and plotting, he was a stronger presence, though he was somewhat overshone by Nicholas Cowie's very proper Page.

However, what ended up being the most important factor in the singing was the diction.  In an opera which tends to ensemble writing, and where the casting has achieved that sort of balance successfully - and it had, here - what is going to stand out, especially with an English text, is how intelligible your singers are.  The chorus was outstanding in this respect, and that's usually the hardest thing to achieve. Most of the singers were adequate; Cousland, and Brian McBride as Dr. Caius were very good.  Arshak Kuzikyan, in the title role, despite a fine, orotund bass-baritone, needs some work in that area, which was a pity given the importance of the part.

The crowning glory of the evening, though, was the orchestra under the direction of the Head of Opera at the RCS, Timothy Dean.  A reduced force, necessitated by a small theatre and a small chorus, they nevertheless played with assurance and commitment, so there was never any impression of any sort of lack.  The distinctive glow of Vaughan Williams's sound world was present in every bar, lovingly shaped and delivered, a real pleasure to hear, lush, verdant, mischievous, a little enigmatic and very lovely.

[Next : 12th May]