Owen Wingrave

Composer: Benjamin Britten
Librettist: Myfanwy Piper after Henry James’ novel
Venue and Dates: Glyndebourne
22, 24 May, 1, 5, 8, 18, 21, 23 June 1997
Conductor: Ivor Bolton
Original Producer: Robin Phillips
Staff Producer: Christopher Cowell
Set Designer: Hisham Ali
Costume Designer: Ann Curtis
Lighting Designer: Robert Bryan
Revival Producer: Daniel Dooner
Performers:
Owen Wingrave: Gerald Finley / Darrell Babidge (15 June)
Spencer Coyle: Steven Page
Lechmere: Christopher Ventris
Miss Wingrave: Eiddwen Harrhy
Mrs Coyle: Vivian Tierney
Mrs Julian: Elizabeth Gale
Kate: Ann Taylor
Sir Philip Wingrave: Neil Jenkins
Narrator: Neil Jenkins
London Philharmonic
Notes:

What the critics say

The Telegraph May 1997

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/1997/05/24/bpick24.xml

Pick of the week: Glyndebourne

Today, Britten’s declaration of his pacifist beliefs, Owen Wingrave, is conducted by Ivor Bolton. It is a setting of a Henry James story about the scion of a Victorian army family who rebels against tradition and quits the service, with fatal consequences. That excellent baritone Gerald Finley sings Owen and Ann Taylor is his unpleasant fiancée Kate. This was originally a Glyndebourne Touring Opera production and now comes into the main festival.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/1997/06/14/bpcrit14.xml

Owen Wingrave (Britten) Based on a ghost story by Henry James, this is one of Britten’s lesser works, but nevertheless effective and involving. There are still some tickets available for this excellent revival – the highlight of the Glyndebourne season to date. Gerald Finley makes a great impression in the title role and Ivor Bolton is the strong conductor.

The Telegraph 31 May 1997

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/1997/05/31/bprgly31.xml

Owen Wingrave: well, I keep on trying with Britten’s penultimate opera, and this magnificent performance has come nearest to making me see the light. But I still find it a disturbingly flawed work. There is – how could there not be with this composer? – some arrestingly fine music. Owen’s hymn to peace is the voice of Britten himself, lifelong pacifist of the most pacifist type, and it is the one passage where heart and soul are gripped and moved.

But the cardinal fault is that, except for Spencer Coyle, the military crammer, and his wife, the voice of reason, none of those ranged against Owen is anything but a stereotyped caricature and they are all horrible. The case for pacifism would be stronger if the case against it were to be put through a sympathetic character. That apart, the music is patchy, with little of the inventive genius that followed in Death in Venice. The orchestra played the gamelan-haunted score fabulously well under Ivor Bolton and the cast rivalled, in some cases excelled, the original. Gerald Finley’s Owen is a major advance in his career, sung with intense and perceptive expressiveness.

As for the three female Wingrave furies, it would not have surprised me if Ann Widdecombe had turned up among them. Eiddwen Harrhy’s Miss Wingrave was the personification of the militant memsahib, Elizabeth Gale’s fluttery Mrs Julian was ideal, and Ann Taylor’s arrogant Kate sent Owen to his doom with cruel credibility. Vivian Tierney and Steven Page were superb as the Coyles. Robin Phillips’s production, originally for GTO, has been strengthened by Daniel Dooner, and Hisham Ali’s sets are brilliantly inventive. This is another triumphant Glyndebourne service to Britten and deserves a (military) medal.