Category: Mary Woodward Review

***** (5 stars)

“Utterly Gorgeous!” 

Scottish Opera have done it yet again: an enchanted and enchanting evening with Stuart Stratford, the incredibly talented Scottish Opera orchestra, and a small group of soloists held us spellbound – lucky Usher Hall audience!

Interesting that the programme mentioned heroes – not quite sure who these were at times…  Marvellous heroines, though – strong, determined even in adversity, passionate in both loving and suffering, pouring out their emotions in a stream of some of the most glorious music Tchaikovsky ever wrote.

We began with Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, a work new to me.  Natalia Kutatdeladze had us gripped from her first notes as the young Joan bade a passionate farewell to her rural homeland, loving the familiar landscape and knowing she will never see it again.  The orchestra gave us both a perfect soundscape of the countryside and the throbbing of Joan’s heart – her sadness mixed with the intensity of her yearning to do God’s will.  Later in the opera Joan is torn between her love of God and the vow of chastity she has made, and her growing realisation that she is in love with her enemy, Lionel of Burgundy.   When Lionel arrives and declares his love for Joan, they sing a passionate duet, unaware of the tragic fate that awaits Joan.

Many years ago, Opera North performed the one-act Iolanta in conjunction with Adventures in Motion Pictures’ ground-breaking Nutcracker [the earliest example of Matthew Bourne’s genius].  Both pieces were truly memorable, so I was delighted to be reacquainted with some of this opera about a blind princess who is unaware that she is blind until two knights blunder into the secluded garden in which she lives.  One of them is Robert, Duke of Burgundy, to whom Iolanta has been betrothed since she was young.  He’s not keen on the match because he’s fallen in love with another woman, about whom he sings enthusiastically.  His companion, Count Vaudémont, says his idea of love is very different.  He’s smitten with the beautiful young girl he finds sleeping: the very personification of his ideal.  He’s so loud in his praise he wakes her up, and in the ensuing conversation he slowly realises that Iolanta is blind.  He sees it as a terrible handicap: she doesn’t – all her other senses make her fully aware of the glories of creation around her.

We didn’t get to see the end of the opera, but for once it ends happily.  We did get to see and hear tenor Robert Lewis, baritone Josef Jeongmeen Ahn and soprano Lauren Fagan as Vaudémont, Robert of Burgundy and the eponymous princess.  We’d already heard Josef Jeongmeen Ahn as Joan of Arc’s would-be lover – a gorgeous voice in a slightly restrained manner [not helped by the physical distance between the two lovers].  Here he waxed lyrical and became very enthusiastic at the thought of his love, Matilde and somewhat suspicious of the situation in which the two men found themselves – he was sure there was hidden danger.

Robert Lewis has the perfect voice for pouring out Tchaikovsky’s passionate melodies – it was a joy to see and hear the ease with which the long flowing vocal lines expressed his overflowing emotions.  Lauren Fagan’s expressive voice matched perfectly with his, and she perfectly conveyed the gentle Iolanta’s confusion at her visitor’s remarks before pouring out her hymn of praise to God’s magnificent creation.

And then we got some of the best bits from Eugene Onegin – though honestly, the whole opera is ‘best bits’ and I would simply love to hear this fabulous quartet sing the whole work.   Natalia Kutatdeladze joined the other three singers in the wonderful quartet – though sadly, as Olga, she had very little to sing.  Robert Lewis’ Lensky poured out his love for Olga, Josef Jeongmeen Ahn’s Onegin was dryly, languidly, bored with existence and not really attending to Lauren Fagan’s Tatyana as she shyly tried to explain her inner thoughts to this god-like embodiment of all her romantic imaginings.

This led into the fabulous letter scene: Tatyana can’t sleep, prey to a mass of conflicting, turbulent emotions.  She simply has to defy convention and pour out her feelings to the stranger with whom she’s fallen in love – and this Lauren Fagan did so breathtakingly brilliantly I don’t have the words to express just how good she was.

At the ball to celebrate Tatyana’s birthday Onegin is bored and decides to flirt with Olga: what he intends as a mild diversion escalates into a violent quarrel between himself and his friend Lensky.  The only possible outcome is a duel, preceded by Lensky’s heartbreaking celebration of the beauty of the world he is aware he might be about to leave.  He wonders if Olga will come and shed a tear on his grave: alas, Pushkin’s poem on which the opera is based makes it clear that she will very soon forget him and marry another…  Onegin appears, late and unapologetic.  The two men’s duet, using the same words and melodic phrases, underlines how far apart they are – and yet how very near – if only they could reach out to each other.  No. No. No – they fire and Lensky falls dead.

Both voices were superb – the whole scene was simply glorious – and I have to give a shout out to the third character on stage at this point.  Emerging Artist Daniel Barrett had already captured my attention with the two superb performances he gave in Scottish Opera’s recent double bill of L’heure espagnole and The Bear.  Here, as Zaretsky, Lensky’s second in the duel, he was completely unawed by the excellence of his fellow-singers and commanded the stage superbly.  I look forward to seeing him again very soon!

The Scottish Opera orchestra now got a chance to shine [plus giving us a welcome breather after all that emotion!] in playing the Polonaise which introduces the third act of Eugene Onegin.  Tatyana is now married to Prince Gremin and moves in the highest ranks of St Petersburg society.   She and her husband are attending a grand ball which Onegin attends.  He’s just returned from extensive travels, trying to forget Lensky and the fatal duel.   He sees Tatyana and is overwhelmed to realise that he loves her…

The next day he arrives at the Gremins’ house and declares his love, demanding that Tatyana leave her marriage and go with him.  She resists, asking him if it’s her high position in society and her wealth that now make her desirable?  He pours out his love for her – but it’s too late: what might once have been is now not possible.  Tatyana leaves him to his self-pity.

It was a fitting climax to an incredible evening, and quite rightly the Usher Hall audience burst into extremely loud and prolonged applause.  There’s something so special about the way Tchaikovsky expresses love and longing and the huge range of other emotions to which humans are susceptible.  His orchestration is superb, his depiction of these emotions in both vocal lines and orchestral underpinning is shatteringly good.  I ended the evening an exhausted emotional wreck, but an exhilarated one.

Bloody marvellous is all I can say.

Scottish Opera, Tchaikovsky’s, Heroines and Heroes, Usher Hall, Edinburgh, RUN ENDED

***** (5 stars)

“A Fabulous Treat”

Last year I waxed lyrical about the superb banquet served up for us by Ariel Lanyi: this year I need to get out my box of superlatives and search through for some more to try and describe what a fabulous treat the Northesk audience had this Tuesday lunchtime.

I think the biggest compliment I can pay Ariel is that I came to hear him despite knowing that he was playing Schumann, one of my least favourite composers – and that I really enjoyed his rendition of the Fantasiestücke Op 12.  This collection of ‘fantasy pieces’ runs the gamut of emotions: romantic swooning, furious outbursts, jolly dancing, reflective questioning, happy skittering about and solemn, hymn-like declamation.  They showcased Ariel’s power and delicacy of touch and his ability to make a melody sing out above a tumultuous undercurrent of emotions.  The silence that held us at the end of the final Ende vom Lied [end of the song] was a testament to the way he had drawn us into Schumann’s music and held us entranced.

Debussy’s second book of Preludes formed the second part of Ariel’s programme.  He told us that these are rarely performed as a complete set – and far less frequently played than those in the first set of preludes.  This second set, he said, is almost a compendium of everything Debussy was interested in, and has a strong narrative sense linking them together.

Once again I had a fabulous, nearly front-row view of the keyboard.  It was a joy to see the delicacy, the almost floating hands as Ariel caressed the keys.  Here were clear, almost transparent watercolours, in strong contrast to the robust oil paintings of the Schumann: yes, there was power too, but somehow more refined, restrained and all the more glorious to hear.

Each of the preludes was different in character, and I loved them all – exquisite contrasts of feeling and atmosphere.  We had mist, dead leaves, Spanish gypsies, dancing fairies, the eccentric Genéral Lavine, a moonlit terrace, a water sprite, a very British homage to Charles Dickens’ Samuel Pickwick, and an ancient Egyptian burial urn.  Les tierces alternées [adjacent triads] was a scintillating display of technique – fingers moving so fast there seemed to be at least ten on each of Ariel’s hands as they played on top of each other in joyful competition.  My favourite prelude was Bruyères [heather the plant or the heath on which is grows].  It began with a simple folk tune, and my notes continue lovely warm chords and growing melody, glorious gleaming tone, delicate filigree decoration and ends Love song – woo me…

Debussy’s set of preludes ends with feux d’artifice – fireworks.  It’s the perfect way to end a recital, an aural description of a firework display – bangers, sparklers, catherine wheels, rockets and much much more.  Joyful cascades of brilliance filled the church before a final few splashes of colour faded into the darkness.  And again there was that silence of deep content, which means so much more than the loudest applause, before we showed our appreciation of this wonderful music.

Warm applause greeted Ariel as he came out to play this afternoon – so many of us who remembered his 2024 recital were absolutely delighted that he was with us again.  Our final appreciation of this young man’s artistry almost raised the roof!  Ariel says he loves coming to play at Northesk: we return the compliment and say we so love hearing him that we are already eagerly hoping that he’ll come back next year.

Music at the Brunton – bite-sized concerts, Ariel Lanyi, Northesk Parish Church, Musselburgh, Run Ended

**** (4 stars)

“Delight’s All Ages”

The Lyceum Christmas show always presents an individual and quirky take on traditional or well-kent tales, and this year’s Cinderella is no exception.  Not an Edinburgh-based tale, for once, but one with a distinctly Scottish flavour, this production entertains and delights in equal measure.

The story is familiar – but with quirky twists.  Ella’s mother died when she was young, and she and her father have been very happy together, sharing a love of the birds that live in the forest where they live.  Her father remarries and confidently expects that Ella will come to love his new wife and her two children – nothing could be further from the truth!  When her father dies, his widow discovers that the fortune she thought she’d married is non-existent.  Ella is demoted to the life of a skivvy, and mother, son and daughter delight in mocking and humiliating Ella, who now has to sleep among the cinders in the kitchen.

A young man comes to forest to watch birds – the first time he has ever seen them in their natural setting.  He’s very excited about this, and when he meets Ella shares with her his hope to see some of the very rare birds he has in his bird book.  He’s very surprised when Ella is able to mimic their calls and summon them to her.  He invites her to a ball the following evening, and she’s delighted at the prospect of dancing, which she loves.  Of course, he’s the prince, and of course Ella doesn’t have any idea of this.

And so the story continues, with the Mother setting Ella impossible tasks and delighting in preventing her from going to the ball – but here, instead of a fairy godmother saving the day, it’s the birds who complete the impossible tasks and provide a dress and a pair of wonderfully sparkly [ruby] sneakers to complete Ella’s costume for the ball.   A sneaker is lost, the Prince is disconsolate: he sets out to find the girl whom the sneaker will fit and despite the Mother’s best efforts, Ella gets to marry the Prince and the Mother is suitably punished. 

The cast are uniformly excellent.  Olivia Hammati graduated from the Old Vic Theatre School last year and is perfect as the loving and vulnerable Ella – feisty, too, and quick-wittedly devising a scheme to get her revoltingly affected and unpleasant step-siblings helping her with her chores.  Matthew Forbes and Christina Gordon have a field day with these two nasty characters – though the Brother does reveal a kindlier side, and one does have some sympathy with the Sister as she fails to live up to the Mother’s impossible expectations.  Richard Conlon is a warm and sympathetic, if easily deluded, Father, Carly Anderson is a wonderfully sparky Scottish Queen, and Sam Stopford a suitably gangly, unconfident and painfully shy Prince.  Nicole Cooper steals the show as the impossibly arrogant, heartless monster determined to claw her way out of poverty by forcing her daughter into the Prince’s arms – even performing instant surgery when her foot won’t fit the sparkly sneaker…

Set and costume designer Francis O’Connor provides quirky and colourful contemporary costumes and has a field day with the mops, brooms and ladders which feature largely in poor Ella’s hard-working life.  A giant mirror cleverly represents the glamour and glitter of the royal court, a striking contrast to the dismal domestic scene.  There is a wonderfully riotous plate-smashing sequence in the kitchen and a joyfully abandoned dance number at the ball.  Gloriously colourful birds [excellent puppetry here] flit throughout the show, offering comfort, consolation, assistance and the hope of a return to the much brighter life Ella remembers from her very young days.  Composer and MD Jon Beales has written some catchy songs; there are some lovely dances to help the story along; and the cast throw themselves into everything with great gusto.

Cinderella is a great ensemble piece, with something to delight all ages: an excellent way to celebrate the festive season.

Cinderella: A Fairy Tale, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, runs until Saturday 3^rd January 2026 for more information and tickets go to: https://lyceum.org.uk/events/cinderella-a-fairytale

**** (4 stars)

“A wonderfully entertaining show”

Scottish Ballet’s Snow Queen showcases everything that makes the company’s productions so special and enjoyable: superb dancing to a live orchestra, a company of individuals rather than soloists with a faceless, homogenous corps, lively children’s participation and excellent storytelling.  It’s the perfect Christmas treat, and a splendid introduction to the world of ballet for anyone who doesn’t know anything about dance.

The Snow Queen lives in a far-distant ice palace with her sister, the Summer Princess.  They quarrel when the princess sees in the queen’s enchanted mirror a vision of herself embracing a young man.  She goes to find him, disguising herself as a young man, Lexi.  Her sister the queen is alone and furious: in her rage, she shatters the magic mirror.

Lexi is making her living as a pickpocket on the fringes of a busy town, using a shard of the magic mirror to protect herself.  One day she sees the young man of her vision: it’s Kai, but he’s in love with Gerda, and asks her to marry him.  Suddenly the action freezes: the Snow Queen arrives to ask Lexi to come back home.  When she refuses, the Queen blows dust from Lexi’s mirror shard into Kai’s eyes.  He becomes a frozen, heartless monster who repudiates Gerda.  A circus arrives and brings light, colour and fun into a drab urban scene: but a trick involving Kai goes wrong and he disappears, leaving Gerda alone and heartbroken.  She begs Lexi for help.

Gerda and Lexi arrive at the gypsy encampment, seeking help from Mazelda the fortune teller.  She tells Gerda that Kai is under the Snow Queen’s enchantment and he cannot be rescued.  Undaunted, Gerda sets off through the forest and, despite the best efforts of snow wolves, jackfrosts and snowflakes, reaches the ice palace.  Gerda tries unsuccessfully to remind Kai of their relationship.  The Snow Queen attacks her, and it’s only Lexi’s reappearance as the Summer Princess, ready to give up her freedom in exchange for Kai, that enables the young lovers to be reunited as Kai’s heart melts.

Overall, it was a very good performance, and much of the criticism I have is good.  In the opening village scene there’s so much going on that you can’t possibly see everything – and I really want to, because every dancer on stage is a living personality with an agenda of their own and I want to watch them all.   There’s so much going on that it’s easy to miss what Lexi’s doing – the trouble she gets into, the potential disasters narrowly averted.   When the circus irrupts into the midst of all this mayhem, things become even more wonderfully complicated – I want to watch the individual performers, the crowd’s reaction to them, the drama between Lexi, Kai and Gerda: and it’s just impossible!

What stood out for me was the performance of Benjamin Thomas’s Ringmaster – I couldn’t take my eyes off him even when Thomas Edward’s cocky little Strong Man was blithely tossing his Ballerina, Alice Kawalek into the air.  I wanted to follow the Acrobats, Rishan Benjamin and Elizabeth Williams – their contortions on the stage of the tiny theatre looked fascinating – and the Clowns (James Garrington and Andrea Azzari) were also demanding attention which I couldn’t always give them.   Later on, in the gypsy encampment it was Benjamin Thomas who drew my eye again, though Grace Horler’s Mazelda was another strikingly powerful dancer.   

And of course there’s the amazing violinist Gill Risi, strolling through the whirling gypsy dancers (all of whom are superbly athletic and eye-catching) who astounds with her fiery, dramatic playing.  No wonder her curtain call – and that of the whole Scottish Ballet orchestra under Martin Yates – received some of the loudest applause of the night.

It was, sadly, the principal characters whom I found slightly underwhelming.  It’s hard for Kai (Bruno Micchiardi) once he gets the glass fragments in his eye.  Up till then he’s been the charming, hopeful suitor who is delighted to have his proposal to Gerda accepted: after that he becomes a bit of a sulky boy puppet, obeying the demands of the Snow Queen and basically being a bit of a git.  Kayla-Maree Tarantolo’s Gerda danced beautifully, but didn’t really get much opportunity to display her inner fire, even when trying to get her engagement ring back from Lexi.  Lexi herself (Melissa Polson) was a brilliant dancer, but had to spend much of her time being disappointed: I felt really sorry for her when she made the sacrifice of returning to her sister’s palace, a moment which I felt passed rather too quickly.

Jessica Fyfe’s Snow Queen was also a superb dancer but she really didn’t make me shiver with fear nor even want to boo her furiously.  She goes around bullying everyone, and isn’t even particularly pleased to get her sister back: I don’t envy the two of them trying to get along in their ice palace…

This aside, Snow Queen is a wonderfully entertaining show and, as I’ve said, a superb introduction to ballet.  My companion had never been to the ballet before, and loved it, as did the whole of the Festival Theatre audience.   The show is a lovely way to enjoy the magic of the festive season, and I’m really glad to have seen it again – not least to see some of the Mary Queen of Scots dancers in wildly different roles!  Meanwhile, I’m looking forward enormously to seeing Scottish Ballet’s fabulously entertaining gender-swapping Cinderella next Christmas, together with all the other delights waiting for me in 2026.

Scottish Ballet presents The Snow Queen, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh runs until Sunday 7^th December for more information and tickets go to: https://www.capitaltheatres.com/shows/scottish-ballet-the-snow-queen/

The production will tour to Glasgow Theatre Royal, Aberdeen His Majesty’s Theatre and Inverness Eden Court Theatre.

***** (5 stars)

“A brilliant concert!”

As ever, this was a brilliant concert.  The Royal Northern Sinfonia love coming to Musselburgh’s Northesk parish church, and Musselburgh loves to welcome them.  The church was packed, and not just with grey heads, all keen to spend an evening with this talented group of musicians who so obviously enjoy making music together and sharing it with us.

They presented a packed programme of Baroque music – Rameau, Leclair, Torelli, Purcell, Corelli, Locatelli, Telemann and Handel took us to England, France, Germany and Italy.  Director Maria Włoszczowska told us how much the Sinfonia love coming to Scotland: it’s not just the freshness of the air but the importance of folk music in Scottish culture, which makes audiences resonate with the folk tunes in the music they play.

There were plenty of them, beginning with Rameau’s Danse from his Fêtes des Herbes, with a continuous bass drone upon which the upper strings danced delicately before everyone burst into an almost eastern, gypsyish dance with a lively tambourine accompaniment.  Leclair’s violin concerto gave soloist Maria Włoszczowska a showcase for her incredible technique – but all the other players are equally talented.  Texture, phrasing, dynamics, shaping, communication, incredible precision, and above all a joy in playing suffuses everything they play, and makes the whole evening a non-stop succession of delights.

And it wasn’t just strings, either!  The tambourine made several appearances, as did sleigh bells.  Maria Włoszczowska turned out to be a mean one-handed drummer, and harpsichordist Amhad Arara could be seen bopping away in the liveliest pieces, adding his solid support and extravagant flourishes to the music.

A couple of Christmas concerti made appearances, there was a wonderful Rameau Orage [storm], one of Handel’s concerti grossi and some delightful dances from Purcell’s Fairy Queen.  A particular joy was to hear Michael Gerrard as soloist in Telemann’s viola concerto.  Throughout the evening his instrument could be heard as a warm, rich contribution among the brighter dancing violins: now he got to stand centre stage and show off his impressive technique in a gorgeous piece which rightly got the loudest applause of the evening.

I don’t know about anyone else in the audience, as I was sitting at the back of the church, but I was smiling virtually from beginning to end of the evening, for sheer joy at the quality of the music and the delight of watching a group of superb musicians play music they obviously love.  Already I’m looking forward to next year’s visit… haste ye back!

The Brunton, Christmas by Candlelight, Northesk Parish Church, Musselburgh, Run Ended.