THE IMPLAUSIBLE POTIONS OF DR DULCAMARA
Playground
Opera at Welcombe Hills School, Stratford-upon-Avon *****
Rarely have I had such a life-enhancing experience as that I
was privileged to share at Welcombe Hills on Wednesday morning, along with 100
excited and enthusiastic children of all ages.
Playground Opera is one of Longborough Festival Opera’s many
educational outreach activities, and under the aegis of director Maria Jagusz
and musical director Jessica May it takes mini-opera productions to a range of
schools around the Cotwolds area. But Welcombe Hills is unique, catering as it
does for those with special educational needs, all the children clapping in
time, tapping their toes, rocking backwards and forwards and even putting their
fingers in their ears in their instinctive response to the music-making
delivered by Playground Opera’s remarkable little company.
The Implausible Potions of Dr Dulcamara, derived from Donizetti’s
L’Elisir d’Amore, was set in a travelling circus, with a colourful, immediately
attractive set, and with a singing complement of three: Matthew Siveter (by now
an old hand) quick-changing as Dulcamara and Belcore, Rachel Speirs as the
love-interest Adina, big-voiced even at this time of the morning, and Tobias
Campos Santinaque as the sympathy-grabbing Nemorino, teddy-bear and all. Jagusz
was the deft ringmaster, and other parts were taken by a couple of PO’s expert
techies.
May’s reduction of Donizetti’s sparkling score was vividly
rendered by herself at the piano, and the expert husband-and-wife duo of Milos
(accordion) and Anja (violin) Milivojevic.
The fascinated audience and their devoted helpers loved it
all, as did I, and this hard-boiled old critic can’t wait for next year.
Christopher Morley