Dutchmen Everywhere

Dutchmen Everywhere, Thursday 3/9. As it was raining, Alice left her camera behind today. Of course as we came out of the tube station in Trafalgar Square, the sun was shining brightly. But, no pictures today. We went to the National Gallery and straight to the Dutch Landscapes (in the Orange section of the floor map – go figure). There are just too many great paintings here to take in. We ended up staying for 2 ½ hours and left most of the museum unseen. Perhaps this is because every time I saw a Turner I listened to the audio guide commentaries?
We had what is sure to be our knockdown luxury dinner for the trip at Sheeky’s. It’s a fish restaurant; there is a tiny box on the menu that says, "Meat dishes available" but nobody cares. Londontourist.org says, "Food in London can be dreadful, unless money is no object. … Think £50/$90 a head and then some at a good restaurant, or one that's any way near fashionable. We think the best strategy is simply to survive without injuring your wallet or digestive system. If your visit to London is part of a European tour, save gastronomy for France."
Hear, hear. They are right, but tonight was the night we went off the financial rails. Sheeky’s was on their short list of high class restaurants ("theatreland haunt of well-paid actors and expensive fish. Much cheaper and easier than its star-studded cousin, the Ivy.") Well, Alice had crab bisque (good) and pan-fried cod on a crab risotto (great); I had broad bean soup with Queen’s scallops (decent, but 3 bay scallops for $14??) and a monkfish and prawn curry (very good, but again, 2 shrimp for $35??). For dessert we shared a winter fruit crumble which was, again, only good. We had a great time watching the other R&F customers and we enjoyed our food, but thank goodness we can prepare most of our meals in the flat.
After dinner it was off to the Coliseum for the Flying Dutchman with Bryn Terfel. The singing was magnificent but until we check the reviews when we get home the names of the other singers are unknown (programs were $6 and we know the plot). The direction was uneven, let’s say. It began well but became obscure and labored about half-way through. The stage design was a high metal catwalk that served mostly as the deck of Daland’s ship. Below the catwalk were movable screen/partitions which used videos as sets. Ship scenes were illustrated by engine rooms and various other large machinery videos. When the Dutchman and/or Senta appeared there were recorded videos of them in extreme close-up. The director told the actors to spend a lot of time walking in and out of sight behind the partitions, which became silly in the second half.
However, the opening aria of the Dutchman brought a literal spine-tingling to us both. We were in the front row and when the singing and acting is that good it’s an experience never to be forgotten. The same goes for Senta’s spinning song in Act II; when we first see her she is wandering around the stage with a magic marker drawing a large eye on everything (the eye stands in for the portrait of the Dutchman in the libretto). She is obviously disturbed and/or obsessed, which gets us over the dramatic hurdle of trying to figure out why a nice girl is so ready to throw herself into the ocean for a man she has known for a few hours. The director is telling us that this drama has nothing to do with free will; the actors are being manipulated by higher powers. Not a new idea for the opera, but it’s told very well.
The chorus was very good (this is the Welsh National Opera, after all). Particularly at the beginning of Act III when everyone came to stage front, the sound blew us away. Unfortunately they chose to have the crew of the Dutchman’s ship sing over loudspeakers instead of offstage, and more unfortunately, the director decided that all sailors (dressed as gunnery crews with sound-blocking earpieces on their hoods) are evil and Daland’s crew went about defiling the village girls, who were dressed up as blond schoolgirls in gingham dresses so they probably deserved it (mind of the director speaking here …). More design notes: in the spinning scene the women (dressed here as Orwellian factory workers) spun fiber optic cables that descended from metal tubing that resembled a spider’s spinnerets. There were videos of 1940/50-style telephones (?) and lots of video of the kind of centrifuge where pilots and astronauts train for high-G flying (?). When the crew of the Dutchman’s ship ‘appeared’ they were represented by three space suits, illuminated from within, coming down from the rafters (?). We guess that the director had a thing about the dehumanizing effect of modern technology, but at no time was he able to tie this into the story. Just how a village spinning circle is related to industrial factory workers was not made clear. After a while it was just stupid. At least Arte Johnson did not appear in his disguise as the Dirty Old Man (see Julie Taymore’s version, the Flying Women’s Libber) so it could have been worse.
On the tube going home we met one of the violinists. The orchestra was also confused by the production, he said, so we felt a bit better. We made sure to compliment them on the musical part, which was wonderful. All the singers were excellent to superb, and the orchestra played like Trojans (it was done non-stop for 2 hours and 20 minutes). Wouldn’t have missed it.