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The Guardian
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Mazeppa review – Tchaikovsky's blood-thirsty opera is a wild and gruesome ride
David Alden's blood-spattered production of Mazeppa made headlines for English National Opera back in 1984 with its graphic depiction of execution by chainsaw. And, as David Pountney's striking production for Grange Park Opera proves, Tchaikovsky's rarely staged melodic sleeping beauty has lost none of its power to unsettle the stomach while titillating the ear. The work is timely. The Pushkin poem at the opera's heart concerns an 18th-century Ukrainian war hero whose grab for independence wouldn't be realised until 1991. That the grizzled Hetman (a term for an administrative ruler) is also a relentless torturer who murders his latest girlfriend's father is, to a curious extent, neither here nor there. Throughout the opera, we are rooting for him, if not all, then certainly most of the way. Historically, Mazeppa was a regional leader who defied Peter the Great in the hope of freeing his country from the Russian yoke. Tchaikovsky's romantic subplot concerns Mariya, a young woman who leaves her parents for a life of adventure with the charismatic warlord. When her father tries to shop him to the tsar, the old man is promptly handed over to Mazeppa to be killed. After the Hetman is defeated in battle, Mariya duly loses her mind, expiring on the corpse of a faithful childhood friend. Directorially it's presented as very much a play for today, with Francis O'Connor's efficient, movable set and Tim Mitchell's stark lighting creating an all too recognisable world where oligarchs and mercenaries vie for power and violent death is only a heartbeat away. After an oddly sluggish start, Pountney is quickly into his stride. Repurposing the famous hopak (an energetic Ukrainian dance) as an interlude, he even finds a moment of humour as the lovers embark on a crazy choreographed motorcycle ride, stopping off at a motel for a quickie before hitting the road again. The gruesome violence, when it comes, includes the extraction of several teeth, one eyeball and execution by giant jump leads. Grange Park has assembled a fine cast led by David Stout whose ageing Mazeppa is a cross between Yevgeny Prigozhin and the leader of a chapter of the Hells Angels. Joking aside, it's a moving and dramatically crafted performance wedded to a firm baritone with plenty of heft. Rachel Nicholls' lightning-bolt soprano is well suited to the steely but ultimately vulnerable Mariya, the voice only occasionally unsteady towards the top. John Findon offers sterling support as the hapless Andrei and Luciano Batinic brings nobility to Mariya's father Kochubey, singing through mounting layers of blood and gore. Sara Fulgoni is fierce if a trifle squally as his wife. The only reservation is Mark Shanahan's occasionally routine conducting of the English National Opera Orchestra. Tchaikovsky's fervent score deserves more oomph. Mazeppa is at Grange Park Opera, Surrey, until 6 July
Times
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Mazeppa review — Tchaikovsky meets the Hells Angels
★★★★★The evening began with Wasfi Kani, the irrepressible founder of Grange Park Opera, urging a round of applause for the donors who helped to bankroll the 'Theatre in the Woods'. 'Ten years ago this place was swamp,' she said before pointing out her latest coup (this time against Arts Council England): getting the English National Opera orchestra to play for David Pountney's new production of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa — as well as for the Grange Park Ring cycle starting next year. It was great to have such an experienced outfit in the pit, although few if any of its members will have played this opera since it was last staged at the London Coliseum in 1984, in an infamous production involving a chainsaw. • Read more opera reviews, guides and interviews Pountney's Grange Park production is only mildly gory, although staging an opera about the Ukrainian commander who stood up to the Russian tsar would itself seem a bid to be newsworthy. Unfortunately, in this (Russian) opera, the elderly statesman is fairly unredeemable, running off with the young daughter of a fellow marshal he mercilessly tortures and executes before disastrously turning against the crown. Pountney and the set designer Francis O'Connor wisely steer clear of specific parallels and set their sights elsewhere: on toxic masculinity. Barrels of radioactive waste pop up on a stage dominated by two mobile watchtowers and wooden and glass fixtures. There's no escape from the military-chauvinistic complex. In fact, here Mazeppa (David Stout) heads a leatherclad Hells Angels-like squad, which allows for a very funny sequence where he mounts a motorbike with the good-girl-gone-bad Mariya (Rachel Nicholls) while chorus members rush past with road signs and telegraph poles. Also laughable is the high camp of a funeral for Mariya's innocence in which her childhood possessions are tossed into a burning coffin. • The best classical concerts and opera: our reviews These moments wonderfully offset some performances of extraordinary emotive power. As Mariya's mother, Lyubov, Sara Fulgoni delivered a wrenching plea to her daughter to stop the execution of her father, Kochubey — a role Luciano Batanic carried with utter conviction and actual sobs in his voice. His profound bass was the perfect match for Stout's Mazeppa, who brought more subtlety to the title role with the vulnerability of his upper register. Delivering consistently clarion top notes and lyricism was the tenor John Findon, who sang Mariya's spurned lover Andrei, cutting through orchestra and chorus at full tilt, as they often were, and to exhilarating effect. The conductor Mark Shanahan quickly steadied occasional moments of overexcitement. Nicholls vividly portrayed Mariya's transformations before expertly taming her powerful soprano to give perhaps the best rendition of the opera's closing lullaby we're likely to hear, especially if Mazeppa continues to be unjustly underperformed.280min including dinner intervalTo Jul 6, Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
Telegraph
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Mazeppa: Tchaikovsky gets a torture-porn makeover
Surrey's finest fizz – courtesy of nearby vineyard Greyfriars – is the usual tipple of choice at Grange Park Opera, but on a thrilling Saturday night it was vodka, poured neat. The drink is a chaser for Mazeppa, who has already imbibed white powder from a plastic bag hidden in an oversized plush teddy bear. The eponymous anti-hero of Tchaikovsky's lesser-known opera (1884) is a motorbike-riding man-child who is obsessed with power, violence and women. He's also fanatical about freeing Ukraine, of which he is hetman – a form of governor – from 'the protection of Warsaw' and 'the repression of Moscow'. Based on Pushkin's narrative poem Poltava, Tchaikovsky's interpretation is more Netflix biopic than rigorous historical source. For Ukrainians, Ivan Mazeppa (1687-1708) is a national treasure – he featured on a hryvnia banknote – and the retrieval of this work from the vaults marks solidarity. Director David Pountney's production eschews hagiography for graphic realism – and this Mazeppa is stronger for it. Act I opens quietly, with a progressive, 1812-like build. There's talk of garlands, some unreciprocated love. So far, so Romantic. Mazeppa (the brilliantly bewigged baritone David Stout) visits his friend, Cossack judge Vasily Kochubey (bass Luciano Batinić) and his daughter Mariya (soprano Rachel Nicholls) to whom he is godfather. He's the type of godparent Hugh Grant describes in the film About A Boy: 'I'll forget her birthdays until her 18th, when I'll take her out and get her drunk and possibly, let's face it, try and shag her'. Mazeppa does that and more, and while Mariya is portrayed as a willing participant (both consent and pleasure in a glorious motorbike scene), her departure from Russia to Ukraine is the catalyst for political crisis. 'The battle lost by Mazeppa is the battle fought today by Zelensky,' writes Philip Bullock, professor of Russian literature and music at the University of Oxford. Battles are bloody, and so is this production. In Act II, we're transported to Mazeppa's dungeon, where Kochubey and his friend Iskra are beaten and waterboarded. Henchmen appear with pliers, a hand-saw, rubber gloves. Fear is in the implication; the detail is in our imagination. A scalpel descends in time for the supper interval. Our return is greeted with a double execution. Amid this bleak torture porn is some blissful singing. Nicholls, now nursing a large pregnancy bolster, is as dazzling as Mazeppa's gold lamé bedding. In Act III, gas-masked cossacks rise from elevated coffins as zombies, contorted like a Francis Bacon painting. They die again to Tchaikovsky's percussive shots, administered with precision by the English National Opera conducted by Mark Shanahan. The subsequent heartfelt duets are a misnomer; Mazeppa ends in Mariya's madness. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the country's then minister of culture Oleksandr Tkachenko called on the UK to boycott Russian composers until the war was over, writing in a British newspaper that 'We're not talking about cancelling Tchaikovsky, but rather about pausing performances of his works'. Grange Park Opera shows that intelligent engagement has a far greater impact. In rep until July 6;
Telegraph
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Simon Boccanegra, Grange Park Opera: Simon Keenlyside triumphs in Verdi's smart, sombre masterpiece
Verdi's sombre yet uplifting opera Simon Boccanegra, the story of power struggles and betrayals in 14th-century Genoa, will never be among his most immediately appealing works. But in a production as strong as Grange Park Opera has mounted, with a cast led by the magnificent Simon Keenlyside as the first Doge of Genoa, it accumulates tremendous intensity. David Pountney's vintage staging, with a fine idiomatic Verdi cast, lifts the achievements of Grange Park Opera onto a new level. Pountney's production, billed here as a revival (though the opera has never previously been seen at Grange Park), actually originated over a quarter of a century ago at Welsh National Opera. It is now revived by Robin Tebbutt. No problem there, especially as it has brought with it the outstanding sets by the late Ralph Koltai – bare hanging sheets of metal and mirrors that move, with atmospheric abstract seascapes – all lit to vivid effect by Tim Mitchell. The smell of power is on-stage from the start of the prologue, as the pirate Boccanegra is surprisingly chosen as Doge with the approbation of the crowd. Keenlyside transforms himself, growing in stature and nobility, his voice weaving around Verdi's lyrical baritonal lines with gripping shaping and eloquence. One of the challenges of the score is Verdi's over-reliance on bass voices, but here James Creswell as his rival Feisco (a fine debut here), David Shipley as the popular leader Pietro and Jolyon Loy as Paolo Albani (who poisons Boccanegra) all manage to accumulate great weight, not always avoiding heaviness, but projecting strongly. The only counterweight to this male dominance is the ethereal voice of Amelia Grimaldi, an outstanding debut here by Elin Pritchard. She is revealed as Boccanegra's lost daughter Maria, and their recognition scene is deeply touching, especially when her devoted Gabriele Adorno, sung with stentorian if raw tone by tenor Otar Jorjikia, is overcome with relief at the revelation. The plots turn sour when Adorno is commanded to kill Boccanegra, but Albani's poison has already had its deadly effect, and in the third act the walls close in on the Doge as he fades, nobly blessing all and nominating Adorno as his successor. Verdi had two major attempts at his score: realising that the 1857 version was just too gloomy, he radically revised the piece in 1881. (Mark Elder recently recorded the earlier version.) So there is now a mix of traditional arias, adjusted to provide more continuity, and new ensembles –especially the dramatic Council Chamber scene at the end of Act I. Here the resources of Grange Park, which has limited choral forces, told against the spectacle, which is dominated by a few spiky nobles on stilts. And although conductor Gianluca Marciano drove the score with vigour on Thursday, the playing of the Gascoigne Orchestra isn't yet quite a match for Verdi's ever-subtle accompaniments. However, in assembling such an idiomatic cast in this fine historic staging, Grange Park Opera has raised its game and made a powerful new case for Verdi's score.
