Jane Coylereviews Mother Goose at the Grand Opera House, Belfast and Michael Dervanreviews the first of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra's December lunchtime concerts
Mother Goose
Grand Opera House, Belfast
City Hall's giant Sitka spruce and towering ferris wheel are encrusted in fairy lights, the European market is crammed with festive delights, Sing Carols is on the television and May McFettridge has taken up residence at the Grand Opera House. It's official: Christmas is in full swing in Belfast.
The subject of this year's Qdos Entertainment pantomime is the goose which laid golden eggs, thereby ensuring economic prosperity for Mother Goose and her five singing and dancing children. A timely fable, if only it were true. However, the delightful fairytale is relegated to a brief waddle-on role in a commercially successful format which is in need of a makeover. You could set your watch by the set-pieces: May storming on in outrageous costumes, eyeballing and insulting the audience; the clash between the good fairy (Alyson McInnes's Fairy Virtue) and the scheming baddy (Olivia Nash's Demoness Vanity); an "it's behind you!" ghost routine; a front-of-stage change-of-scenery turn by May and a line-up of shy children; and a glitzy wedding finale. To be fair, lovable little Priscilla the Goose does justify her existence early on in the proceedings by squeezing out three gigantic eggs.
There is also an unexpected moral to the tale. In succumbing to greed and self-obsession, Mother Goose allows Demoness Vanity to lead her to the Magic Pool, where she undergoes a transformation worthy of Gok Wan. Does it make her happier? Of course not, for, as we well know, beauty lies in the spirit, not the face.
There's little evidence of the credit crunch in Belfast as hordes of happy customers sign up for this vital part of their traditional Christmas celebrations. Until 17 Jan
JANE COYLE
Byrne, RTÉ NSO/Houlihan
NCH, Dublin
Glinka- Russlan and Ludmilla Overture.
Tchaikovsky- Nutcracker (excerpt). Romance Op 38 No 6.
Rachmaninov- Vocalise.
Glazunov- Winter.
Adam- O Holy Night.
Catalani- Ebben? Ne Andrò Lontana.
Tchaikovsky- Swan Lake (excerpt).
The first of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra's three December lunchtime concerts showed how you can effectively have your (Christmas) cake and eat it. This mostly Russian programme, under Robert Houlihan, offered music with winter and Christmas associations, without heading off in all the obvious directions.
The most Christmassy offering turned out to be one of the weakest in the programme. Soprano Celine Byrne sounded as if she didn't really know what to do with Adolphe Adam's O Holy Night except go straight through it in a way that sounded rather too businesslike.
She was in fine form, though - beautiful mezzo-ish tone easily produced, and natural inflection of the musical line - in Tchaikovsky's Pimpinella and Catalani's Ebben? Ne Andrò Lontana, the aria made famous in Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1981 film, Diva. She was not quite as at home in Rachmaninov's Vocalise, where it sounded as if she were trying to shape the music without reference to the tension between vocal line and orchestra.
Robert Houlihan was in good form throughout, relishing the worlds of colour opened up by the Russian music and securing clarity within an orchestral palette that was notable for tone of a richness and depth that the NSO does not often produce.
There were excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and Swan Lake, and the Winter tableau from Glazunov's altogether less well-known but almost equally charming The Seasons. These morsels are irresistible when delivered with such musicianly polish.
Further concerts next Wed and Fri
MICHAEL DERVAN
