Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade, Vache Baroque

Vache Baroque is now established as a late summer treat, with its combination of interesting and well-performed operatic choices and fun associated events in the grand house’s grounds.

This year’s choice is Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade and the setting of the 17th-century Buckinghamshire elegant building provides a suitable backdrop for this piece of baroque brightness – and dramatic, classical nonsense.

In an Olympic year it is an obvious choice of story for a baroque festival, so much so that Paris chose the Antonio Vivaldi version of “L’Olimpiade” with the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées showcasing a new production by Emmanuel Daumas. In their production the performers were characterised as athletes.

Ironically, the main topic that overshadowed the Paris Olympics was gender. Specifically, who should and shouldn’t be allowed to compete in women’s sports amid criticism over the participation of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who was disqualified from last year’s World Boxing Championships over a controversial gender eligibility test. The boxer went on to win the gold medal. Less headline-grabbing, the gender and type of voices of characters for characters in opera, and baroque in particular, is a hot debating point in opera and academia.

At Vache, the director Laura Attridge decided that the performance would be played “straight” although for the denouement, when everyone reveals who they are and how they are all interrelated by blood or circumstance, the audience did find it all very funny. It is a little like the scene in Mozart’s Marriage of FIgaro when he discovers who his parents and it gets dafter and dafter as he has to explain it all to Susannah. In this case it isn’t meant to be funny but hey ho.

The cast of fine young singers included Aoife Miskelly, Nazan Fikret, Natasha Page, Bechara Moufarrej, Shafali Jalota, Frances Gregory and Robert Forrest. The female roles would have been sung by castrati back in the day, thus so many women in this cast.

Aoife Miskelly has a richness to her voice singing Licida and her loyal friend Megacle has pathos and flair sung by Natasha Page. These are two excellent fresh relatively new voices to the opera world. I have heard Miskelly elsewhere and she never fails to impress. Page demonstrates great skill in coloratura and style with aria after aria oozing emotion.

Bechara Moufarrej sounds glorious as Clistene who dramatically has as tricky a role as any, trying to make this melodrama seem vaguely workable to today’s audiences – thus the laughing at that denouement.

Shafali Jalota is great as a no-nonsense Argene in a contemporary take on the role which works well and contrasts with the intentionally rather simpering if noble Aristea delftly sung by Nazan Fikret.

The narrator roles are taken by an appealing Frances Gregory as Alcandro and Robert Forrest as Aminta. When they get their chance to sing, sadly hardly at all for Forrest, they show their abilities.

They are giving it in a mix of Italian and English, the Italian arias are performed with new English spoken dialogue by Laura Attridge which she has cleverly based on the original recitatives. The costumes are a bit of a mish mash thematically as we have people in suits, quasi military garb, and sort of sashes or just floaty dresses. Being semi-staged the singers walk onto a stage, in front of the players. The stage is at the side of the house. They walk off stage and into the doors of the house or just around a corner out of sight.

For some singers it is largely spoken dialogue with very little singing but for most of the cast members there are some fine arias which are a combination of lyrical singing and coloratura, for soprano and mezzo, plus the two roles sung by men, all of which is finely performed with much sophistication.

Conductor Jonathan Darbourne brings out the finesse of the score while his individual musicians are allowed space to bring their flair to the music and enable us to relish the not so often heard instruments.

The weather was kind for us and the miked opera performance proved a summer delight However in poor weather the audience and players are all under canopies. I am not too keen on the sound being miked and here it probably would not have been necessary as these singers certainly appear to have fine voices and technique.

This new festival deserves support and the organisers show great imagination and commitment in introducing features to bring new and existing opera audience along such as relaxed performances, the activities in the gorgeous grounds (this year on an Olympics theme), and good quality refreshments – and there are idyllic picnic locations, covered eating areas all with lovely vistas.