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Reviews from the Edinburgh International Festival 2007 (1)
Poppea
By Claudio Monteverdi
Vienna Schauspielhaus
Royal Lyceum
Edinburgh International Festival
**
Monteverdi's Orpheo is playing in the opera section of the International
Festival and, as a companion piece, nominally designated as theatre,
Barrie Kosky has brought over the Vienna Schauspielhaus to perform this
radically avant garde re-working of Poppea.
Kosky has a reputation for courting trouble and when some see what
he has done to this opera, they might be outraged. The plot has been
turned into a sex romp, while the music, played by a four-piece band
(Kosky on piano plus three cellists), has echoes off Kurt Weill, some
more classical operatic moments, and a good selection of Cole Porter's
greatest hits.
Self-indulgence is the name of the day, although that does not stretch
to Michael Zerz's set, which is minimalist although it takes on a new
dimension when the backdrop raises to reveal a mirror for a colourful
final scene.
The Roman plot is simple enough, though embellished. Long-haired Nero
(Kyrre Kvam) wishes to replace his wife Ottavia, played by Beatrice
Frey, whose singing mixes the sublime with the crackingly ridiculous.
She is maddened at the prospect of losing her position to voluptuous,
deep-voiced Poppea (Melita Jurisic) as a woman with the deepest of voices
and glittery teeth!
The best singing comes from Ruth Brauer-Kvam's Drusilla, who attempts
to sacrifice herself to save Ottone, the would-be saviour of his empress.
With loving Amor and her cohorts to help from the heavens, a revenge
tale is played out in which poor Seneca loses his life for propounding
wisdom.
This production frequently goes for the self-indulgent at the expense
of the story and the music. However, it comes together for a fascinating,
visually and aurally effective ending that will win over some of the
doubters.
Philip Fisher
On Danƒe
Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu
Edinburgh Playhouse
*****
Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu have composed a love letter to dance in
all its glorious forms. Against a blue sky powder-puffed with clouds,
18th century ladies bounce weightless in full corsets and wigs, break-dancers
perform balletic pirouettes while lions emerge from topiaried hedges
and a tiger paddles round a goldfish bowl. This exotic, visual circus
of delights often seems as if it has been dreamed up by a child genius
who has supped on hallucinogens before bedtime. It must be pointed out
that some of the above are not in fact live, however so intricately
woven together is the blend of multimedia to live action in this delightful
production that after a while you would hardly notice and definitely
not care.
Choreographers José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu have seamlessly
fused a team of hip-hop, African, flamenco, ballet, capoeira, shower/bedroom
dancers, clowns, and performers of every imaginable form of bodily movement,
and given them over to the graceful extravagance of French 18th century
composer, Jean-Phillipe Rameau. Backed by the limitless imagination
of their three-person graphics designers, a visual landscape is constantly
in motion against the back wall, with, for the most part, a catwalk
inserted to allow the dancers to wander into the unfolding chaos. Classical
imagery of nudes and statues abounds alongside the bold colours of the
live dancers, and the erotic comic blend, such as a stone statue whose
bottom expands to the command 'shake it', is laced with the hint of
Terry Gilliam's Python cartoons.
In between the ensemble sequences, solo performers explore their personal
love of movement, from break flipping and spinning on hands and shoulders,
to simply moving their body any way they fancy. In one adorable scene,
a clown marvels at the difference in movement and styles between two
individual dancers; 'such vocabulary,' she whispers in wonder. Watch
out for the alternative method to flamenco for those without lightning
heels, as offered in another.
Paying homage to Rameau's love of the bizarre as well as dance, this
vibrant and gorgeous piece never places a foot wrong in its beauty,
warmth and spectacle, and makes you leave believing that the human body
is the eighth wonder of the world.
Lucy Ribchester
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