Britten: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Verdi: Falstaff

 Britten

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Ilan Volkov

(Glyndebourne, 2 CDs)

Verdi

Falstaff

Vittorio Gui

(Glyndebourne, 2 CDs)

Glyndebourne’s Dream would have been an ideal candidate for DVD, because Peter Hall’s staging was timeless – one of the greatest of all Britten realisations in the theatre and every bit as magical as the score. Even if the Sussex opera house missed a trick by not filming the last revival in 2006, the smell of the theatre still irradiates this audio recording from the same year. It picks up the stage noise but also the vibrancy of live performance and the superb quality of Glyndebourne’s ensemble: you can “watch” the opera in your mind’s eye, such is its perfumed potency.

The cast is young and fresh. Bejun Mehta and Iride Martinez make a vivid King and Queen of the Fairies, while Kate Royal’s chaste Helena and Jared Holt’s virile Demetrius lead the lovers’ quartet. Matthew Rose makes a believable Bottom, Jack Morlen a waspish Puck. Ilan Volkov conducts the London Philharmonic with an ear for Britten’s spine-tingling effects: very seductive.

Falstaff, from 1960, profiles Gui’s quicksilver command, Sesto Bruscantini’s matchless Ford, Hugues Cuénod’s vintage Dr Caius – and the boxy acoustic of the old theatre. Geraint Evans’s larger-than-life Falstaff is just as endearing as his studio version, and the ladies make a genteel showing: this is not so much a first choice, more a period piece.