It seemed a good idea on paper to restage Britten's Gloriana, which was written for the Coronation, in the Jubilee year. But somewhere along the line the production sunk the opera in waves of distracting 'business' from characters not part of the action.
The opera was set as a production being done in a village hall to celebrate the Queen's Coronation, this meant that we had lots of slow scene changes, prompters waving their hands around at the side of the stage and a reduction in the size of the stage space to allow for all of this to go on. And it was distracting.
The opera gets bleaker as it goes on.....The scene where the Queen takes the dress and parades around in it, is cruel. The Elizabeth and Essex scene in her bedroom is strong and dramatic - one of the the few scenes to work well as the action was focused around the two principal characters.
Susan Bullock's Elizabeth was well sung. Her diction did away with the need for surtitles. Toby Spence was a dashing Essex. He seemed to be having great fun in the dances.
I think, like a number of things I have seen this year, it was another wasted opportunity all round - but not a total disaster!
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