LE NOZZE DI FIGARO – MOZART
Presented on Dec 5, 7, 10 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Winter Season
James Pease – Figaro
Adèle Leigh – Susanna
Anne Bollinger – Countess
Geraint Evans / Bruce Boyce[Dec 10] – Count
Patricia Kern – Cherubino
Howell Glynne – Bartolo
Barbara Howitt – Marcellina
Kevin Miller – Basilio
Martin Dempsey – Antonio
Margaret Nisbett – Barbarina
Niven Miller – Curzio
Bryan Balkwill – Conductor
Christopher West – Producer
Adele Leigh was coming to Dublin in that winter of 1957 to sing Mimi in “Boheme” and Susanna in “The Marriage of Figaro”. A striking and beautiful young woman, she was a principal at Covent Garden since the early fifties and between engagements there sang with success in both opera and operettas on the Continent. It wasn’t, she assured me, her first visit to Dublin; that had come about in unusual circumstances. ‘When I joined Covent Garden we used to do spring tours of the provinces and food-rationing was still in operation in Britain. I remember we were visiting Liverpool and for some inexplicable reason I got this craving for sugar. I think I missed sweets and things like that. Someone in the company said, “We’re not far away from a big box of chocolates,” and when I asked where, this person replied, Dublin. So we devised a plan that immediately our operatic performance ended we’d rush off and catch the night boat to Dublin, and we did just that. On arrival there at seven in the morning, the first thing we did was tuck into a large breakfast of eggs, sausages, bacon and black puddings, the lot, all the things we couldn’t get in London. ‘After that we went into a dozen sweet shops in O’Connell Street and Henry Street and packed up with sweeties. It was marvellous and I can still remember the smile on baritone Jess Walters’ face and his wife Amy’s. I fell in love with the place on my first visit and later on when Colonel Bill O’Kelly asked me to sing for the DGOS I was thrilled to do so. It seems he had seen some of my performances at Covent Garden and liked them.’ She stayed at the old Jury’s Hotel in Dame Street on her arrival in Dublin for “Boheme” and “Figaro”. She noticed that among her colleagues was this tall, handsome young man, a gorgeous creature in her teenage eyes, and she said to herself, ‘Oh I fancy that man.’ It struck her that he looked a shy young man. Some days later Christopher West, who was producing the Figaro, and John Copley, an aspiring director, invited her to Jammet’s restaurant for lunch. As she had been there before and adored the food, she said to West, ‘Oh, that’s a lovely idea. Coming from Britain, I think we were all a bit hungry and appreciated fine food.’ By now she knew the name of the young man she had fancied to be the bass James Pease, who was said to be American-born. When she walked into Jammet’s she found to her surprise that he was seated at a table in the corner beside Christopher West and John Copley. She learned later they had both arranged it that way. The meal was fun and to her delight found she shared the same sense of humour and interests as James Pease. ‘We had a good deal in common,’ she mused. ‘I mean, we were both beginning our international careers and eager to do the best we could. Making conversation with him was easy and we had plenty to talk about. We were to see a lot of each other in Dublin, for between rehearsals we often dined together in restaurants or took walks around the city.’ To Adele Leigh, the DGOS chorus was more than competent. ‘I think they sang so well I believed, before I was told, that they were professional.’ She counted the Dublin engagement as a kind of holiday and it didn’t worry her that the fees were very low. It was a friendly society and it engaged very good principals. For example, James Pease was singing Figaro and also Colline in Boheme, so it was a busy time for both of them. ‘I think meeting James in such romantic circumstances was a help and I tried not to make it a distraction. And it was great that Christopher West was directing both operas, as I considered him very talented.’ Her Mimi was enthusiastically received by both audiences and critics. Charles Acton in the Irish Times could be acerbic but on this occasion, commented, ‘I could not ask for a better Mimi then Adele Leigh. She has everything the part requires – appearance, acting really lovely singing. By the time Mimi dies, one can but share Rodolfo’s broken heart.’ The part on this occasion was sung by William McAlpine who was described as a first-rate Rodolfo with a purity of tone ideal for Puccini’s music. James Pease made his mark as Colline and sang a very moving farewell to his old coat. Robert Johnston (Irish Press) was convinced that this was no routine performance of the opera but one exceptionally well sung and acted. He attributed a good deal of its success to conductor Warwick Braithwaite. To Adele Leigh the Gaiety was an adorable little house really suited to operas like “Boheme” and “Figaro”. She had particularly happy memories of Mozart’s opera as it was the first she had sung at Covent Garden and then it was as Barbarina, and later she sang Cherubino, and then Susanna. It had helped that she had begun her career as an actress as this afforded her clearer insights into characters and how they should be played. That season she made a big impact at the Gaiety and found a champion in Charles Acton. ‘During the whole evening I completely lost my heart to Miss Leigh,’ he wrote, ‘and she afforded me the greatest pleasure.’ It was a formidable cast of principals, with the gifted Welsh bass-baritone Geraint Evans singing the Count, while James Pease got good notices for his Figaro, though one critic found him too restrained in the aria, ‘Non piu andrai’. A lot of credit for the success of the production was given to director Christopher West and conductor Bryan Balkwell. Mary MacGoris warned Independent readers: ‘Anyone who misses this “Figaro” will miss the best operatic production in Dublin for several years and one of the most enjoyable performances of this opera it can be possible to see.’ Adele Leigh was thoroughly enjoying herself and her romance with James Pease was, she could say, proceeding gaily. And the reaction of the Gaiety audiences greatly pleased her; they were more spontaneous than their Covent Garden counterparts and responded more readily to comic situations, irony and wit. She felt she could not thank Bill O’Kelly enough. He had permitted her to sing Mimi as up to then she usually sang Musetta in the Covent Garden productions. The only drawback in Dublin was the hectic schedule between rehearsals and getting an opera on stage and in her view it was all too rushed. She had made friends and these friendships she told me later, were to endure. She and Veronica Dunne, for instance, had a happy reunion – they had sung together in Gluck’s “Orfeo and Euridice”, in what was tragically to become Kathleen Ferrier’s last performance before her untimely death from cancer. Barbara Howitt was the Marcellina in “Figaro” and like Miss Leigh has, she says, fond memories of Dublin. ‘I remember the occasions always being happy and full of laughter. For one thing, the proximity of Neary’s bar to the Gaiety stage door with its oysters and Guinness probably eased our paths through long rehearsals. And I remember, too, the chorus being very competent and with beautiful Irish voices. I suppose we weren’t too worried about rehearsal time as the other UK singers like myself were singing roles we already were very well versed in at Covent Garden. It was a warm and heartening experience to sing in Dublin and we all enjoyed it.’ It was the extreme warmth of the audience and their appreciation of the artists that struck her most of all. One avid opera buff who happened to be the head brewer of the Guinness firm at the time, invited the Figaro cast to a reception in the brewery where they were entertained by the directors. That Christmas, to her great surprise, she had a telephone call from Park Royal in London, the Guinness HQ, asking her when they could deliver her Guinness and in due course a lorry solemnly drove up to her flat with a barrel, which the driver carried up in his arms to her first floor flat and tapped it for her. ‘I can tell you it was quite a conversation point at Covent Garden for some time.’ There was a happy ending to Adele Leigh’s romance for she and James Pease were married in London six months later. ‘James proposed very quickly to me,’ she recalls, ‘and the wedding later had a fairytale air about it, and I had already told Bill O’Kelly that both James and myself would love to return to sing with the society.’
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
Opera in Ireland 