The theme of this years Wexford Festival Opera is “theatre within theatre” and it doesn’t become any more self-conscious and self-referential than Charles Villiers Stanford’s The Critic. It is also one of the rare things in the operatic world – a hilarious comedy that provokes guffaws of laughter from the audience all the way through. Certainly, the immediacy of the English text helps largely here, but it is the clever self-mockery of the operatic world and its traditions that greatly add to its comic appeal.
Based on fellow Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play of the same name, The Critic is an opera about an impresario, Mr Puff, commenting to his composer, Mr Dangle, and the critic, Mr Sneer, in a prolix manner on the dress rehearsal of his opera. The opera within the opera is a skit on the melodramatic buffoonery of operatic plots with little to tie the disparate strands together. Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Christopher Hatton discuss the threat of a Spanish invasion. Puff interrupts proceedings regularly to explain how historical dramas need a love interest, no matter if it has any bearing on the historical action; cue for the governor’s daughter to enter stage right and sing of her histrionic love for the captured Spaniard, the wonderfully named Don Whiskerando! There are several other self-consciously ridiculous sub-plots involving a supposedly orphaned son reunited to his parents and other unrequited love interests, before the Spanish Armada is vanquished and the opera concludes cheerfully with Queen Elizabeth’s entrance.
Musically this is an accomplished work and the most famous of Stanford’s operas. The work has lots of mischievous musical references from Beethoven to Wagner, from Donizetti to Verdi and part of the fun is in spotting such allusions.
Director Conor Hanratty’s vision for his production is closely allied to Stanford’s own concept of how comedy works: “The Opera is meant to be played as the original piece should be, in all seriousness. Any attempt to treat it farcically only spoils the humour.” So the opera is set in Sheridan’s 18th-century world which itself depicts theatrical Elizabethan England. Hanratty successfully allows the myriad of knowing self-referential nudges and winks without ever straying into farce. The soldiers’ prayer scene in Act 1 reaches a rousing choral conclusion before being repeated on the insistence of Puff with noticeably less ardour. Or the lovers Tilburina and Don Whiskerando, taking leave of one another, being asked to repeat this departure with looks of smouldering passion.
Hanratty is aided and abetted by the sumptuous sets of John Comiskey: castles, battlements, Tudor timber beams and jurist courts of law come and go in great procession, immersing us in a mock-theatrical world. The historically informed costumes of Massimo Carlotto – wigs, jerkins, hosen, breeches and ruffs – bring verisimilitude and many amusing moments such as when Tilburina theatrically produces her handkerchief to show her emotionally charged state or when she is dressed in a white silk gown to illustrate that she has lost her mind.
Mark Lambert as Puff, Jonathan White as Dangle and Arthur Riordan as Sneer acted their parts with great aplomb as they interrupted the rehearsal at key moments or commented on it with biting satire.
The vocal cast was very strong too. Dane Suarez’s tenor throbbed with passion as he played Don Whiskerando strutting around the stage, melodramatically declaring his love. Ava Dodd as Tilburina was the consummate actress, managing to successfully portray boredom with having to repeat her lines and yet somehow also singing with grace and elegance. Ben McAteer as Sir Walter Raleigh and Oliver Johnston as Sir Christopher Hatton made a great comic duo, the former’s baritone melding beautiful with the latter’s tenor line. Rory Dunne as the Governor of Tilbury Fort and the Lord Justice brought comic mastery to each role as did Hannah O’Brien and Carolyn Holt as nieces. Gyula Nagy as the Beefeater/Earl of Leicester possesses a wonderfully tight vibrato as he brilliantly dispatched Whiskerando to the next world, not once but twice!
Conductor Ciarán McAuley knows exactly what he wants from the score and delivered a super-charged performance to which the orchestra of the WFO responded whole-heartedly. The male chorus sang lustily as soldiers who were just about to destroy the Armada.
In the centenary year of Stanford's death, The Critic is a must-see opera for everyone and deserves a regular place within the canon: with its English dialogue and comic wit, it is equally a brilliant introduction for those with little or no experience of opera, while seasoned operagoers will enjoy its clever self-conscious allusions.
Andrew's trip to Wexford was partially funded by Wexford Festival Opera.
