Page 175 - FINAL_Theatre of Sound Coverage Book

Garsington, Grange Park Opera, The Grange Festival, Longborough, plus others we didn't
get to cover. These were the ones who offered all the work to production teams, players and
singers – especially stricken young artists, brilliantly served at Garsington which alternated
two top-notch choruses.

Covid guidelines had to be closely followed at all rehearsals; inspectors came along to ensure
their correct execution (with a will to help, I understand). At The Grange, problems of having a full
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the pit were solved by a pre-recording that could be
synched to time with the singers, a little miracle in itself. You suspended all qualms about whom
these ventures are fundamentally for and focused exclusively on the quality.

And what quality, with some vintage new productions that would have been remarkable in any
year. Top of the bill for me was Glyndebourne’s vindication of Verdi’s Luisa Miller as one of his
remarkable operas, at least in its later stages. The focused, pared-back concept – always
visually striking in Johannes Leiacker's design and Olaf Winter's designs – was Christof Loy’s,
but the bulk of the work was done at Glyndebourne by Georg Zlabinger. The cast was revelatory,
led by Mané Galoyan.as the heroine, in an ultimately disturbing relationship with top teno Charles
Castronovo's Rodolfo and a heartbreaking one with Vladislav Sulimsky’s father Miller. Enrique
Mazzola, succeeded by Jonathan Bloxham at later performances, focused on the intimacy, with
an almost chamber-musical beauty at times.

Glyndebourne launched with what I found a laboriously symbolic production of Janáček’s Káťa
Kabanová by Damiano Michieletto, fighting against the intense emotion from a fine cast and a
reduced London Philharmonic Orchestra and Robin Ticciati; Jessica Duchen warmed to the
overall impact more than I did. It then came up with another winner: Sebastian Scotney loved
what Mariame Clément made of Rossini's Il turco in Italia, "gloriously sung and played, the comic
business worked well - I enjoyed every moment". The Glyndebourne Tour revival
of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, the Hockney/Cox classic production looking handsomer