With a slightly sore head and a day's annual leave, I've made it to a computer to report on last night's gongfest at the Grosvenor House: the 2007 Laurence Olivier Awards. Some Filter^ readers might know that I managed to blag my way onto the opera panel for the 2007 awards, and last night was the culmination - for the opera panel - of a year of performances which we considered for Best New Opera Production, and thousands of creatives who were elegible for the Outstanding Achievement in Opera award.
In contrast to the frippery of this 'Saturday Supplement' style post, tomorrrow I hope to upload my personal ranking of every new opera production I saw last year on The Filter^ Review, starting with the best, and ending with the worst (and yes, there were some real turkeys in there!) As for the reality, English National Opera picked up Best New Opera Production for Janacek's Jenufa, with the Outstanding Achievement statuette going to Amanda Roocroft for her performance in the title role of the same opera. Deserved, yes, but the voting system dictates that these might not have been everyone's first chioce: around a table in January, the five panelists decided on four 'nominees' in each category without the aid of any system save the back of an envelope and a biro. But we then ranked each nominee first, second, third and fourth in secret according to personal preference, which results in something of a 'happy medium' winner.
An unexpected surprise last night was that the Society's [of London Theatre] Special Award went to an opera great, John Tomlinson, whom I had worked relatively hard to get nominated for Oustanding Achievement in Opera for his role as Hagen in the Royal Opera's Gotterdammerung (Wagner). This award can go to anyone in theatre, and that it went to such a talented opera singer was very gratifying. Other big winners were Sunday in the Park with George (Sondheim, Oustanding Musical Production and a confection of other awards), and the wonderful Tamsin Greig (Best Actress for Much Ado about Nothing, RSC).
All four nominees in each opera category were productions or people whom I considered to be of total class, because there were a lot of contrasting views amongst the panelists, most of whom were hugely more experienced than me. But if I'm honest, I'd have been delighted if ENO's Orfeo (Monteverdi) or Opera North's Peter Grimes (Britten) had pipped Jenufa - these were two performances that achieved something unspeakable from beginning to end, productions that make you forget where you live and what your name is (and suggest a lack of desire to remember such minor details).
I'll resist the temptation to thank lots of people for the experience of being a panelist (oh shut up, you weren't there as a performer and were probably the only person to walk out of the Grosvenor House and onto a nightbus back to Brixton...), but must just add that the experience of sharing a drink with the Green Wing cast and was pretty special. Well, not so much share a drink as a room...they were just a table away...OK maybe a couple of tables away...But I'm sure Tamsin Greig looked at me at one point...
So of you're interested stand by for the rundown on The Filter Review (button on the left), hopefully within 24 hours.
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