English National Opera live performance at the Coliseum London and shown in cinemas including Aberystwyth Arts Centre. It was a full house – admittedly the average age of the audience was over 60 – and every performance is fully booked.
It is a jolly tale that many people are familiar with, though more likely to be seen as ‘operetta’ rather than a national opera presentation. Our hapless hero finds himself at the end of his apprenticeship to a pirate, an unfortunate mis-hearing of the instruction to apprentice him to a ‘pilot’, and having been at sea for years, he falls in love with the first beautiful young women he sees.
The advantage of seeing the filmed performance is that you can see the facial expressions more clearly, taking it past an operatic musical event into a theatrical performance. It was definitely an interesting insight into the shaking policemen whose lot was not a happy one! There is a dilemma for the audience in whether to applaud or not as you would do at the theatre, but overall it was an entertaining evening of music and laughter even if you have seen it many times before.
