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Dido And Aeneas/Les Noces

Published Tuesday 8 May 2007 at 16:45 by Kevin Berry

Steely greys and blacks and a large moon over minimal staging create immediate tension in both Les Noces, which is performed first, and Dido and Aeneas. 12 dancers are on stage in each of Opera North’s double bill of new productions. Aletta Collins’ positioning of the dancers, the major characters and the chorus gives both stories emotional clarity and strength. For Les Noces, which is sung in Russian, the orchestra is on stage and is augmented by four pianos.

Stravinsky’s Les Noces has been called a sung ballet. Based on Russian folk wedding traditions it is given explicit sensual energy by the dancers and an on form chorus.

Six exquisite, long-haired maidens enter, wistfully and playfully, to bless the bride. Then the young men prepare the groom. The dancing is spirited and expectant and ultimately ravishing.

The choreography is less pronounced in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas but it has importance. Positioning, movement and physical reaction add clarity and power to the tragedy.

The mezzo- soprano Susan Bickley makes a magnificent Queen Dido, Adam Green’s Aeneas rather less so. The soprano Amy Freston excels as the Queen’s confidante Belinda. Her voice is effortlessly clear and she has sweeping grace and purpose. Clarissa Meek’s Sorceress is a richly defined study, as is James Laing’s fetching Spirit.

These short operas may seem a curious selection, separated as they are by two hundred and fifty years. The themes of love and marriage are a tenuous link but it is the contrasts between the two which make this programme so pleasurable.

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