One of the virtues of seeing six hours of Wagner this week was that I had plenty of time to read the programme. The Royal Opera's excellent production of Siegfried had a good 90 minutes' worth of
intervals and it gave me the opportunity to learn a little more
about some of the marvellous performers on stage. At least, that's
the theory. Sadly, the information we tend to get in programmes
about the singers and creative teams amounts to little more — no,
make that nothing more — than a list of productions and albums.
Ah, that's the wish of the artists and their agents, I am always told when I complain. But aren't institutions as powerful as the Royal Opera House able to overrule agents? As for reaching out to these much desired new audiences, the information about the artists in the programmes is so relentlessly cliquey that any newcomers will feel excluded.
One singer, I learn in the programme, 'studied with Paul Farrington'. What? THE Paul Farrington? Who is he? Sorry, I don't know. The opera newcomer certainly won't know. But at least the Royal Opera House press officer will know. Nope, he doesn't know either. So what is the point of that little nugget?
What, too, is the point of lists of roles? Most sopranos at this level have sung Mimì in La Bohème. Do we really need lists and lists of roles? Could we not have one little interesting fact? A hobby? An eccentricity? A bit of a life story? And, heaven forbid, we should ever be told an age. The Independent's own interview with Lisa Gasteen, who plays Brünnhilde in Siegfried, said she started singing on horseback when she rode as a child in Australia. Why not have a sentence like that instead of another boring list of roles and recordings?
It is also, I would suggest, a blinding statement of the obvious that any singer taking a lead role at the Royal Opera House would have sung in opera houses all over the world. Lisa Gasteen 'has appeared in many of the world's leading opera houses'. Peter Sidhom, meanwhile, 'has appeared in many of the world's leading opera houses'. For John Treleaven there is a frisson of a variation. He has 'a busy international career with leading opera companies'. Oh, give us a fondness for cats somewhere, please.
The entry for concertmaster Vasko Vassiliev, though, does have an intriguing line. He, we are told, is artistic director of the Super-Girls Orchestra. Now, what is that when it's at home? Is it a group of talented Sloanes, or simply female musicians with muscles? I'd like to know more about this one, but no, it might prove too interesting.
So what about theatre? The programme for another big opening of the week, Richard II at the Old Vic, was also a bit curious. It was exemplary in telling us plenty about the Old Vic administrators: Sally Greene 'is known for rescuing and restoring the Old Vic, Criterion and Richmond theatres'; David Liddiment 'was responsible for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'. But it is more coy about the people on stage.
If I thought it was bad with opera, this is worse. With theatre programmes, the lists for every performer are just of plays the actor has performed in, not the actual roles. So, for Julian Glover, 'theatre includes Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet'.
What earthly use is that? Did he play Hamlet in Hamlet or the gravedigger? Surely it makes a difference. Surely new and old
audiences would like to know.
