Garsington's got it all... even if the fat lady doesn't sing! Their Eugene Onegin and L'Italia In Algeri are the big successes on the country-house opera circuit so far
Eugene Onegin
Garsington Opera Until July 7
Rating: 
L'Italiana In Algeri
Garsington Opera Until July 10
Rating: 
No doubt about the big success on the country-house opera circuit so far: Garsington’s Eugene Onegin at Buckinghamshire’s Wormsley Estate.
It’s a real coup for them to sign up Sir Michael Boyd, who was artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company for a decade until 2012.
He rewards them with an outwardly conservative production of Tchaikovsky’s opera that penetrates to the very heart of the drama with some strikingly original coups de théâtre. It rightly received a stupendous ovation.
Aside from an excellent Eugene Onegin, Garsington's other opening-weekend offering, Rossini’s delightful L’Italiana In Algeri boasts some of the most opulent sets and some of the most stunning costumes in years
Boyd takes risks. Having Onegin and the murdered Lensky join in a dance of death after the duel scene, and at the beginning of the Polonaise that announces Prince Gremin’s ball, was a huge one.
But it comes off because it makes plain visually that Onegin may have survived the duel but he too is a dead man; a sort of Flying Dutchman figure, irretrievably lost on an ocean of misery.
And when his last chance of redemption, Tatyana, rejects him, what is the only thing he has left?
Natalya Romaniw and Roderick Williams impress as Tatyana and Onegin in Garsington's opening opera
Why, the appearance of the ghost of Lensky, of course. Brilliant.
The Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw is a fine Tatyana, with a voice that could fill the biggest opera house.
And, on the evidence of his Onegin here, Roderick Williams, best known as a lieder singer, should do more opera.
Ukrainian tenor Oleksiy Palchykov is an idiomatic Lensky and the British bass Brindley Sherratt brings the house down with Prince Gremin’s celebrated aria.
With fine support from Garsington’s music director, Douglas Boyd (no relation), and his orchestra, this is a triumph.
Not far behind comes their other opening-weekend offering, Rossini’s delightful L’Italiana In Algeri, composed in barely a month when he was 21.
Ogden Nash once wrote ‘No McTavish/Was ever lavish’, but this opera’s Scottish sponsors, Lord and Lady Laidlaw, prove him wrong by funding one of the most opulent sets and some of the most stunning costumes I have seen in years.
A word of warning, though: if you like fat opera singers, don’t go. Most of this attractive cast match the sets, looking straight out of Hollywood in their glamorous gear.
Especially Quirijn de Lang as an athletic Bey of Algiers and Mary Bevan, blessed with a supermodel figure, as his estranged wife.
Among a strong cast, there’s also an impressive debut from Londoner Božidar Smiljanic, still only a student at the Royal Academy of Music, as Haly, captain of the palace guard.
Bel canto specialist David Parry conducts his 12th Rossini opera at Garsington, and Will Tuckett directs a charming show that made a delightful summer evening seem even more so.
A word of warning, though: if you like fat opera singers, don’t go. Most of this attractive cast look straight out of Hollywood in their glamorous gear especially Mary Bevan (above right) as Elvira, estranged wife of Mustafa
As well as the opera, there are great dinners by Feasts, in a light and airy pavilion overlooking Wormsley’s beautiful cricket ground, the pride and joy of my late lamented friend John Paul Getty.
And Onegin is being transmitted free on big screens over the summer at Skegness, Ramsgate, Burnham-on-Sea and Grimsby.
For screenings, go to operaforall.org and for Garsington daily returns, call 01865 361636
Nabucco
Royal Opera House, London Until June 30
Rating: 
Here, a heavyweight cast of singers, most of whom could diligently attend Weight Watchers for a decade and still not fit into any of the costumes for Garsington’s L’Italiana In Algeri, make heavy weather of this revival of Daniele Abbado’s plodding 2013 production of Verdi’s Nabucco.
It would have needed a designer of genius to make most of these folk look attractive, but Alison Chitty’s grey, boxy, modern-dress togs are an object lesson in ugliness.
As are her sets: there’s a Manhattan skyline, presumably a reference to 9/11, but with no obvious reason why.
This Nabucco is a vehicle for Plácido Domingo as the King.
This revival of Daniele Abbado’s plodding 2013 production of Verdi’s Nabucco is a vehicle for Plácido Domingo as the King and although he sings well enough, he can't turn the volume up the way he used to
He sings well enough – indeed, remarkably for his age – but sadly these days he can’t turn the volume up the way he used to do.
The opera gets its popularity from the Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves but the other two hours are pretty heavy-going.
So this really is one for Domingo fans only – and he’s appearing in only four of the nine performances.
Watching him blunder around at the end in a flasher’s mac actually made me feel sad.
Surely he deserves something a bit more heroic than this in the evening of his career.
