Review: Weill: Street Scene *****
Published Date:
18 July 2008
By David Denton
Kurt Weill's Street Scene has been aptly described as a Broadway Opera, the story of everyday life in a downtown New York tenement block happily dipping into opera and musicals to create the events of love and murder.
The performance by The Opera Group is excellent, the staging resourceful as the action wraps itself around the small on-stage orchestra, the producer, John Fulljames, creates the feel of a community living far too close for comfort.
Owing something to Gershwin, Weill packs the score with tunes, catchy rhythms and at one point a show-stopping dance routine.
The large cast contribute cameos, though as the story unfolds, Weill picks out the downtrodden mother for a role of operatic proportions, contrasting with her daughter, Rose, the girl seeking a better life and comes straight from a romantic musical.
Perfectly cast, Elena Ferrari a robust voiced mother; Ruby Hughes
sweet voiced as love-lorn Rose; Adrian Dwyer, the ardent student
boyfriend she rejects, and Andrew Slater the bullying father.
The orchestra, under Patrick Bailey's direction, is in the groove of
Weill's idiom. So use anything it takes to get a July 24 ticket.
Buxton Opera House
The full article contains 198 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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Last Updated:
18 July 2008 11:11 AM
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Source:
n/a
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Location:
Yorkshire
