THE BEGGAR’S OPERA

REVIEW IN OPERA NOW MAGAZINE, JAN/FEB 2007

Opera in review by Roderic Dunnett

At Haslemere Hall, I enjoyed immensely Surrey Opera’s staging of The Beggar’s Opera (given in Benjamin Britten’s setting of Gay’s score), not just because of the aplomb with which the cast – above all, a splendid chorus – set about it, but because of the myriad of fine touches from director Mark Hathaway.

He was helped from the start by his designer’s period feel. Prav Menon-Johansson and her costumiers had produced glorious dresses and aprons that looked as if they had slipped out of a Rowlandson print – peaches and apricots and nursery-rhyme blues in abundance. Just as impressive were the outfits for Filch (Adam Gilbert) and MacHeath, with some resplendent attire for Tim Baldwin’s eminent, magisterial Peachum. What’s more, everybody disported themselves so naturally you’d have thought they’d been born in them. Hathaway’s blockings of this intelligent cast were so nattily conceived and admirably executed that this show was a constant feast for the eye. Naughtiness was in the air.

Drawbacks? Some of the voices were smallish ones, not operatically trained, and one wondered if they were up to Britten’s scoring, which is quite meaty even in the arias. At times these young singers were overwhelmed. Yet Louise Deans’ Polly made a charming sound, shy and delicate, and paired well both with her father’s robust but restrained baritone and Helen Massey’s fiery Lucy Lockit, the most forceful of the girls’ voices.

The acting (or delicious over-acting) laurels went to Patricia Robertson, doubling in Brummy and Fife accents as Mrs Peachum and Mrs Trapes. But Adam Gilbert made something good, if rather aristocratic, of Filch, and tenor Christopher Diffey’s MacHeath was so suave and agreeable a performer, with a nice if gentlish lyric tenor beautifully abreast of the note, that his attractive character held the show together admirably. We could see more of this stylish Australian, now studying at the Royal Academy.

Baritone Leandros Taliotis has now complted college, and the maturity showed in his voise: there is a slight diffidence, but he has a steadyish, warm-toned delivery. Another useful singer for casting directors to take note of.

From Ian McLauchlan’s eerily tongued flute for Polly to Liz Horseman’s wonderful oboe obbligati, and galvanised by Jonathan Butcher’s often masterly music direction, this was a shrewd musical band that caught impressively the rhythmic zest and ever-changing intricate detail of Britten’s almost hyperinventive score. Simon Hutchings lit it all heroically.