#also i cannot talk about richard without mentioning one of my favourite lines of the whole LC

[orangeshipper]

I'm having a moment about Richard Crawford.

Richard, the older brother, the stolid, safe, reliable, responsible one. Yet also the one who:

Is described as being "good value at a party" after throwing a man in a river and having a merry old time with ham and liqueur, well away from his pregnant newly-wed wife on Christmas eve (Game of Kings)

Definitely plays some kind of strip dice game with Francis, in an inn called The Little God of Love (Queens Play)

Suggests to their mother that Francis would be equally distracted by hot young grooms as hot young maids (Disorderly Knights)

[camelotsheart]

MERLIN CHALLENGE 2020 Day Thirteen - Favourite Cast Member Katie & Julian in 5x13 commentary

I know this is a very big stretch from the theme, but Katie and Julian in this commentary were honestly iconic. Includes: mentions of bondage, incest, so, so much subtext and just a horrendous amount of queerbaiting. I’ve compiled a list of the funniest/most important exchanges below the line.

At the start of the commentary:

J: There are no homoerotic undertones to Merlin of any kind.

K: I think so. I mean, whenever I played any scenes with Millie it was always straight in my mind.

J: No, there are definitely lesbian undertones in those.

When Merlin tells Arthur he has magic:

J: It's a very beautiful moment between two men. [Katie tries to hold her laughter]

K: ...You are not helping this commentary at all, by the way, Julian.

J: No, I'm not. 

K: I think you possibly have been waiting for the sixty-five episodes to do this one commentary.  

J: Yes. I've always been a bit more serious in the previous ones.

K: No he hasn't, actually. 

Also in this scene:

J: ...On no level is magic metaphorical in this show.

K: It's funny, because I don't actually feel like you're being sincere.

J: I'm always sincere.

K: You're the exec. You are never sincere.

J: Believe me, I'm a fountain of truth and honesty.

K: Julian is lying right now. Lying.

When Gwen is back in the castle and Leon reports to her that Arthur is still missing:

J: We've gone to the spurned wife who wants to know where her husband is.

K: But she has Sir Leon. Why would she need...?

J: Ah... Well you see, that's another undercurrent in Merlin, isn't it?

K: Sir Leon?

J: Sir Leon.

K: Oh no. It's definitely-

J: Sir Leon and Gwen.

Also in this scene:

K: ...We know that you never gave me any love interests.  

J: I gave you Morgause. 

K: [She laughs] He says -- in all seriousness!

J: Incestuous lesbianism. What more can you want?

K: You cannot make a show without lesbianism, in all fairness.  

J: It's gotta be said.

Also in this scene:

K: I do worry about you guys, actually. I worry that there are men sitting in a room with Merlin just trying to come up with the most ridiculous scenes that they could get past the BBC.

J: That's...

K: He's nodding.

J: Not true.

K: He is nodding! He's nodding -- it's so true!

J: It's a family show.

K: Not in your head.

When Arthur tells Gaius Merlin is a sorcerer:

K: Did Gaius know?

J: What, that he was a sorcerer?

K: That's not what I asked. About the undertones.  

J: No, Richard would never think of anything like that.

K: You're right, he's a gentleman.

J: He's a gentleman... A man of genuine innocence.

When Arthur gives Gaius the royal seal:

K: The seal... He's passing the mantle to the woman-

J: Yep. That's the last vestige of his heterose-- I mean, sorry. That's the last vestige of his marriage--

K: Oh my god! [They laugh] This has descended to a level. I mean, I thought I was bad in these - playing up - but I have got nothing on Julian Murphy here. I think we should just throw it all out the window.

J: The way we directed the scene where Gaius tells Gwen is basically the thing of it.

K: I think you must just think of most of these scenes in this episode (as the thing of it), if you don't go-

J: It always helps, I swear.

K: You know, he ain't lying again. He has told me this.  

J: If you want to find the emotional truth of it, it does help. 

When Gaius comes back to Camelot and talks to Gwen:

J: That's a tricky one for Gaius to explain - why he's not come back to his wife.

K: You-- You're seeing an entirely different show here than a lot of people, aren't you?

J: Yeah, I know. I do.

When.... er, Julian describes it better:

J: This is the scene where Merlin feeds Arthur... I'll just let that hang in the air.

K: I will input what I can. Alex Vlahos is lost in laughter listening to this. He can't quite believe what's coming out of your mouth.

J: It's actually quite a moving scene.

K: And yet that's not what you want to comment on.

And uh, yeah... another one:

J: Now Merlin is giving Arthur a drink.

K: I think he's just giving him a drink there.

J: Yes. They just spend the whole episode on this journey. It's quite simple.

K: Feeding each other?

J: The feeding thing, I think, is in your mind, Katie.

K: You just said it then. I'm just repeating back to you what you said. Don't try and blame this on me! For a start, you guys came up with the episodes!

When Gwaine and Percival are attacking Morgana:

J: This entire sequence is actually a homage to Tom's arms.

When Morgana has tied them up:

J: Oh, Katie. You've tied up the man again.

K: I know. I just like them where I want them, you know. I don't want them to go far.

J: And as you say, thousands of girls watching Merlin want them in that position.... You've tied them both up!

K: Well, like I said - I don't want them to run away when I want them.

When Merlin uses his magic to lead Saxons on a false trail:

[Arthur: All these years Merlin, and you never once sought any credit.

Merlin: That's not why I do it.]

K: Liar!

J: Well, he knows.

K: What are you--

J: You can never be too sure about these things.

K: It's all the meaningful glances now after this DVD commentary that I'm just going--

J: I should say that Katie, just before we wrote this episode, insisted that it ended with a kiss between Arthur and Merlin.

K: That is not what I said. That's what you put into it. I had the most amazing ending.... My ending, which you didn't use, which I thought would have been amazing, is -- Arthur. Mortally wounded on the battlefield. Merlin comes up and cradles him in his arms. Merlin to Arthur: I have magic. Arthur takes his face in his hands: I know. I think I've always known.

When Arthur and Merlin rest for an hour:

[Arthur: Whatever happens--

Merlin: Shh. Don't talk.

Arthur: I'm the king, Merlin. You can't tell me what to do.]

K: Awww

[Merlin: I always have. I'm not going to change now.]

K: [laughs] oh my god....

[Arthur: I don't want you to change.]

K: [continues laughing] Do you know how much trouble we're going to get in from people saying this was a beautiful moment and all you guys can do is laugh?

J: Well I think you need to have both sides of it. And to be fair, we did genuinely think of the episode as a love story between two men. That's what I think it is. Jokes aside and innuendos aside, I remember talking to Justin and saying that's what it's about.

K: You can't deny that Merlin and Arthur love each other. On whatever love way you want to think. There is no denying it.

J: I think it's a purer love than you, say, had for your sister.

K: You say I had for my sister. [Julian laughs] Ok. I don't know how you read that into it.

J: No. We'll stop there.

K: Oh, we won't.

When Morgana rides her horse through the woods:

K: More Katie galloping.

J: I think you did that just so you could see my boobs.

K: I definitely didn't.

When The Scene happens:

J: Now we're nearing the moment. I'll show you where exactly I'd pick is the...

K: ...where it's all been building to -- almost sixty-five hours of TV. Special moment.

... [Arthur: Just hold me, please.]

J: There you are.

K: [gasps] I can't believe you put that in.

J: Well I think it's... you know, he's dying. The man he loves is dying, so he's holding him.

K: I don't think that's what you meant at all when you put that line.

J: It is!

Shameless trivialisation of ruining everyone’s holiday:

J: I don't know how the nation's gonna feel on christmas eve, but anyway.

K: Yeah, it's kind of a downer.

Katie being literally everyone in the Merlin fandom:

[Kilgharrah: No man, no matter how great, can know his destiny.]

K: Hold on a second here, hasn't the dragon been telling him his destiny this entire time?

J: Yeah, but that's the sort of annoying comment that people make when they're not just going with the flow.

K: Oh really? Oh really, is it? [they laugh] Fine then!

[pangzi]

Okay how about this I’m always lookin for cpop groups to stan so why don’t you tell me about ur faves

you have no idea what you have unleashed!! but i will gladly take the offer and rant about my ult group TANGRAM i was gonna do ONER too but this post got too long and tangram was more important i tried to introduce the members but the descriptions just became random thoughts and tiny rants lmao sorry i love them a lot, i also added all songs i think and their reality shows pls love them they deserve it :( 

members: (basic member info here)

Qiu Zhixie (Frankie), oldest of the group, absolute vocal king and isn’t shy about it, parent of the group, loves his 5 children but is also done with them, language king!! his english is really good, says he also speaks spanish and japanese but there isn’t as much proof lmao, was in codename contra with yu bin, basically the perfect husband everyone wants to marry him, has tumblr???? says he doesn’t use it but we don’t believe him!! (i literally have a video of him telling me ‘tuMBLR? we doN’t uSe THat HEre!!’), songwriter!!!!!!!!!!!!!, old man and knows it but the members still wont let him forget, they bully him a lot bc they love him so much, has this one burberry shirt he wears all the time?? we lowkey want to burn it??

Lin Chaoze (Richard bc the chinese 理查德 li cha de sounds like his name), TINY GOD!!, lies about his height just like ji li but we still love him, looks tiny but is actually pretty tall wtf, dance KING!!, God of Dance Zhang Yixing even praised him!!, on ip he constantly helped people, is the reason why both tangram;s and all the teams he was ever on in ip’s choreos were that good and in sync, leader and parent of the group, also absolutely done with his children but would die for them, maotong is his favourite child and spoils him a lot, very insecure about his singing but has a beautiful voice, looks like a complete baby but on stage he… fuck god he’s so sexy on stage!, that’s why we sad off stage = chaoze, on stage = richard, really strict teacher, literally sees every little mistake it’s wild, most popular member!, really sassy and dramatic we love that!

Bei Honglin (Air) yes his english name is Air, yes he is still my ult i know he’s that powerful, aNOTHER VOCAL KING!! has a high singing voice but his speaking voice is really low?? seksi, completely underappreciated i swear to god he has like 5 fans???, the sWEETEST boy alive, cares so much about his fans he bought us ice cream in chengdu bc it was so hot sOBS, also went to make cheesecake to give it to people on his birthday event, and he and his mom bought my friend coffee when she went to see him on the airport at 5am and she was the only one there it was wild, together with zhixie he forms ΒΔΒΞ and they make food unboxing videos and theyre so funny jgklgjd, absolute sWEETEST MOST POWERFUL smile, i s2g i stanned chaoze without a doubt until bhl smiled at me ONCE and boom he was my ult wtf??, also nose crafted by the gods!! this man is perfect i swear, also i call him Jesus Oppa for reasons he would kill me if i posted said reasons, he also reads all his dms, comments and mentions on weibo and instagram!!,OH also auditioned for rap of china twice, first time he got told he doesn’t ‘look’ like a rapper?? is it bc he looks too pretty? bc he looks like an entire boyfriend??, n e way watch this stage, OH HE ALSO WRITES LYRICS FOR THEIR SONGS!!!!, super super super grateful for everything bc he knows he’s the least popular (he thought nobody was going to show up to his birthday event), crybaby (chaoze is too tbh), highkey in love with chaoze literally looks at him with heart eyes all the time, also loves his mom so much it’s so cute, i can talk about him for years so i’ll stop here pls love honglin

Li Ruotian (Kai), d e m o n, everyone’s bias wrecker, i heard he didn’t prepare anything when he auditioned so he just read a poem and got into the company???, pretty boy reading a poem exactly what banana ent needed!, he’s really really dumb and so funny wtf, his soft rap in Stay with you is the reason i am alive, lots of people end up stanning tgm just bc of this man’s face??, therefore he deserves the title visual of the group, really annoying but everyone loves him anyway, also actor!!, he’s gonna be on a period drama i think??, extra dangerous bc he has d-… dimples

Jiang Jingzuo (S???? according to this is banana lmao, we’ve decided it stands for sexy), another dance god!, also nice voice, we were all surprised he got some of ldh’s lines but god he deserves them, sweetest cheekies uwu baby, tries to looks like a cool dude but is baby, is done with everyone but also joins in their antics???, promised a love shot dance cover but i still haven’t seen it jingzuo where is it???????, also martial arts, don’t piss him off!!, made the entire room dirty during his ip intro video with his broom it was hilarious, niCE ARMS, also have i mentioned his cheeks????????, really really hot, will come for you when you least expect it 

Gao Maotong, god where do i start with this one??, baby of the group, an absolute meSS!!, super smart got like crazy high grades on his gaokao even tho he didn’t go to school since ip but just locked himself up at home to study for three months?? (that’s why a lot of recent stages are without him), guess that’s why his head is so big…, got into a super good university, so like he’s crazy smart but says he leaves his brain at home when he goes to work, so i can say he only has 1 braincell, he once licked a rock and took a frying pan everywhere???, dumbest funniest boy alive everyone loves him a lot, lies about his height too bc he’s so freaking tall??, aka his name suits him tall maotong, wants to stop growing poor baby give some of your toll to chaoze he needs it, gamer nerd, god there’s this one part where qzx bit him bc he wouldn’t stop gaming to plan their germany trip with him even though qzx was going back to taiwan soon gfkdljdf, OH uh yes he’s a rapper! and a really good dancer!!, basically every fan has adopted him, although there’s one person in his gc who says she’s his daughter lmaooo, really cute teethsies he’s really insecure about :(

Predebut they were Trainee18, there were also You Zhangjing and Lin Yanjun, they debuted with nine percent and are solo now, pls check them out bhl and qzx wrote this song for yzj and it’s amazing. Lu Dinghao left the group, i cannot explain why without ranting for 7 years + he doesn’t deserve that attention.

Songs:

Rock The Show (predebut with Trainee18), absolute BOP (lyrics, MV)

Radiant - single, debut song, basically a love song for the fans, cried when i first heard it, always makes my heart beat faster (lyrics - performance - home made MV lmao)

Focus - single, big fat bop, horrible super flashy mv (lyrics - MV - performance - dance practice (my fave tgm video))

Stay with You - single, absolutely gorgeous, might be their best song, lots of drama with the mv it was super sad i won’t add the mv, this song alwyas makes me happy tho(lyrics - performance)

Deja You - single, written for their company’s concert, the beginning is hilarious but it’s a good song (lyrics - performance)

The Painting from a Dream- super soft weird song, great to fall asleep to?? (lyrics)

Rush Forward - OST, really happy song?, didnt like it at first but now i do (lyrics)

Lyrics of love - for a charity event (lyrics - mv)

The Me Then, The Me Now - with you zhangjing, lin yanjun and my wife qiang dongyue, for their company concert (lyrics)

Lin Chaoze - Break it (lyrics - mv - performance)

Bei Honglin - Chasing Dreams OST (lyrics - mv)

Reality Shows:

Korea Trip - trip to korea after elimination IP (no chaoze)(PLAYLIST ENG SUBS)

Sawadikap Banana - predebut Tangram on vacation in thailand (PLAYLIST ENG SUBS)

Guten Guten Banana - TANGRAM trip to Hamburg for an event + You Zhangjing and Lin Yanjun for several episodes(PLAYLIST ENG SUBS)

This is Banana - preparation for the company concert so with other banana artists(PLAYLIST ENG SUBS)

Other subbed videos: TangramSUBS, BananaTeamSubs 1 / 2, 

[beckettsthoughts]

Poetry

Poetry: If you have one, name a favourite book or poem.

This is the best question, I love poetry so much and I have some definite favourites. I also have couple of favourite books, or at least books I love with all my heart and will always recommend, so I’ll note those at the end. I apologise for this taking a while, but there’s no way I could go short on this one. No way whatsoever. I really needed a distraction and I felt like this was the kind of ask I could drag out into an essay-length epic of rambling about literature, so I hope you don’t mind that I kind of took this and ran with it.

I read it in your word, and learn it from, by Rainer Maria Rilke

This is my favourite poem from Rilke’s collection Poems from the Book of Hours, a book I bought several years ago from an adorable little shop in Paris. “I read it in your word, and learn it from/ the history of the gestures of your warm/ wise hands,” this poem so perfectly describes a feeling I cannot otherwise put into words. Something like listening to a person and understanding them, learning from them and appreciating them. 

The Yellow Palm, by Robert Minhinnick

I studied this poem for GCSE, which by all rights should mean I hate it. Instead, this poem has become one of my favourites. With rich sensory description and a complex emotional impact, this ballad describes Minhinnick’s experiences walking the streets of Baghdad in the late 1990s. It’s political in a more subtle way than some, but you can truly empathise with both the people the poet describes and the poet himself. It stuck in my head for a long time after I first read it.

Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out, by Richard Siken

I have not read that much of Siken’s work. I have read this and maybe one or two others, so I cannot claim to know much about Siken. This poem, however, really caught my heart when I discovered it some years ago and it has not released it since. Siken’s writing is captivating, in all honesty, and the structure of the poem is nothing short of genius. It’s an analysis, a musing, a conversation, a letter and a lesson. I could possibly talk about this poem for hours.

The Lost Leader, by Robert Browning

This is another of the poems I studied at school, this one for my A Level course. Again, my reaction to school-sanctioned texts was not so typical, because my teacher’s enthusiasm netted me and Browning is now one of my favourite poets. The Lost Leader is actually not so typical for Browning, definitely the most unique from the collection we studied, and I love it as much for the political and social context as I do for the phrasing and the rhythm. This poem is, in all honesty, Browning grousing about Wordsworth for selling out to the monarchy and betraying the liberal cause. “Just for a handful of silver he left us/ Just for a riband to stick in his coat.” It’s like the Romance poets’ equivalent of a modern day celebrity Twitter feud, complete with name-dropping and petty accusations.

Dulce et Decorum Est, by Wilfred Owen

Okay, I know this is another typical school poem, but I didn’t actually cover this one in any of my English classes. Not even when we had an entire year studying war and conflict poems. No, this poem has entered my consciousness many times over the years and eventually it stuck, as poems seem wont to do. This poem is a scathing criticism of political attitudes to conflict and the glorification of war. The brutal descriptions and imagery are drawn from Owen’s own experiences, and the honesty behind it is one of the reasons this poem is as powerful as it is. The last line refers to a famous phrase, “Dulce et decorum est/ Pro patria mori”, meaning ‘it is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country’, as “the old Lie”; arguing against the perception of war as a noble thing and instead highlighting the cruelty and brutality instead. This poem is revolutionary, and it changed many people’s attitudes towards war, and that is why I love it as much as I do.

The Laboratory, by Robert Browning

And another one from Browning, another one I studied in school. This is one of a group my class dubbed ‘the murder poems’ and for good reason, as this poem details one woman’s plans to poison her ex-lover and his new paramour in the setting of the aristocratic, feudal Ancien Régime of France. It’s written in iambic pentameter, making the rhythm deceptively bouncy and upbeat compared to the subject matter, and the descriptive language is just luscious. The narrator describes the poisons in the laboratory with such fervour, the “gold oozings” and “exquisite blue”, and her wicked excitement about it all is what drives that fast rhythm. It’s hard not to enjoy this poem, honestly.

Angel with a Fiddle, by Bette Wolf Duncan

This is probably the most obscure of the poems I’m talking about, as I have only seen it on one website and even that’s unreachable now. For that reason I considered leaving it off the list, because it’s kind of torturous to describe it without you having any real way of finding it, but I’m going to talk about it anyway. This poem is really what drove my love of folk poetry, not so much because it is a folk poem but instead because the language used is so damn good at evoking the feeling of a folk poem. “Tall n’ lean n’ lanky,/ With a fiddle neath his chin…/ The days weren’t quite so cruel/ When he played his violin.” As a violinist and lover of folk poetry, this just calls to me. It has an air of mystique about it which I love, but it’s just such a sweet little verse. I hope it can find it properly again, some day.

Special shout-outs go to the many poems of Leonard Cohen, all of which I love but could not choose a favourite from; the poems of Pablo Neruda, all of which make my heart ache in the best way, and also to any and all of the comedy poems I grew up hearing and loving. That includes the works of Hillaire Belloc, The Kings Breakfast and other assorted works of A.A. Milne, and T.S. Elliot’s Book of Practical Cats. I really do love poetry. 

Now, onto books:

The Raven Cycle, by Maggie Stiefvater

This is just the perfect fantasy series for me. Every character seems so genuine and so alive, fitting into this epic of magic and wonder and just plain weirdness. It’s hard to believe that every character in an ensemble cast could be quite so endearing, but it’s one of the reasons this book tops my favourite fantasy list and my favourite Y.A. list. There’s humour, there’s magic, there’s mystery and there’s relationships. I love it.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman

This book is kinda scary. Moreso to adults than children, I think. I first read it the year it was released, in my early teens, and I’ve made it a mission to read it every now and then just to see how differently I interpret it each time. This is one of the few instances I’ve enjoyed a child narrator outside of a childrens’ book. It doesn’t come across as cheesy or dumbed-down, but it’s still appropriately and realistically naive. The magic and surrealist horror elements are very well-handled, and it captures a very genuine feeling of childhood curiosity. This is the kind of book I wish I could write.

Gray, by Pete Wentz (and James Montgomery)

I almost cheated and put this in the poetry section, because the language in this book is so beautifully poetic that it may as well be there. But no, this is a semi-autobiographical novel, a favourite genre of mine, and so I will write about it here. This book is very honest and brutal experience of mental illness and how that impacts your sense of self and relationships with others. It must have made me cry at least twenty times. It hurts, it hurts so hard, but I feel like recommending it anyway because I think it’s a good book for when you want to understand things and understand people. One of the reasons I love it, actually, is that it’s so rare to read something so introspective without it coming across as self-centred, but I came away from this book feeling like I understood Pete Wentz as a person way more than I could from any other media. 

Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Lastly, a book I love for having the best humour and characters I can imagine, is Good Omens. Anyone who knows me outside of the internet knows how much I love this book. If anyone mentions anything even tangentially related to Good Omens or any topics or themes within Good Omens, I will talk about it. For a long time. Until I am situationally and circumstantially forced to stop talking about it. I raved about it enough to convince my best friend to read it and now, now he loves it just as much and we can rant about how good it is together. I would recommend this to anyone, regardless of what you usually read or don’t read, because I guarantee that at least 90% of people will love it. 

Anyway, thank you for making it all the way to the end of this, I had a lot of fun writing it and distracting myself from what has otherwise been a downright awful day. Thank you so much for sending me this question, and once again I apologise for going so completely overboard. Thank you

[lopehernanchacon]

Lope Hernan Chacón: A great big present: Stephen Medcalf on returning to Buxton to direct his favourite piece, Idomeneo

Mozart: Idomeneo – rehearsals for Buxton Festival – the festival chorus (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

With his production of Mozart’s Idomeneo for the 2018 Buxton Festival (Idomeneo opens on 8 July 2018), director Stephen Medcalf is coming full circle in a number of ways. Whilst he has never directed the opera before he worked on it very early in his career, on Trevor Nunn‘s production of the opera at Glyndebourne in the 1980s (Nunn’s first opera production) where Medcalf was a young assistant director. And Medcalf’s first job as an assistant director was at Buxton, where he worked with director Malcolm Fraser (who co-founded the festival) on Kodaly’s Hary Janos (with a cast which included Alan Opie, Cynthia Buchan and Linda Ormiston) and would go on to work on Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto the next year with Lesley Garrett. 

During rehearsal for Idomeneo, I recently met up with Stephen to learn more about this thoughts on directing Idomeneo.

Mozart: Idomeneo – Stephen Medcalf in rehearsal for Buxton Festival (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

After his early period at Buxton, Stephen returned to Buxton in the 2000s to direct a sequence of Donizetti operas with Andrew Greenwood conducting, and then for Stephen Barlow (artistic director of the festival since 2011) he has directed Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Beethoven’s Leonore [see my review] and now Idomeneo.

Idomeneo is an opera that Stephen has always wanted to direct, it is the only major Mozart opera which has so far escaped him. He is thrilled to be doing it at Buxton where the Opera House is a perfect size for performing Mozart. He calls Idomeneo opera seria but not as we know it. Despite the opera seria form, Mozart uses a lot of devices to make it flow, thus advancing the form and transforming opera seria considerably. Stephen sees the work as very forward-looking, anticipating Mozart’s later operas, and he cites the way the storm in Elettra’s heart becomes the storm of the shipwreck.

Having directed the Mozart/Da Ponte opera and The Magic Flute three or four times each, Stephen finds the seeds of all the later operas in Idomeneo, you keep hearing echoes of phrases from these later pieces in the opera. And Stephen finds it extraordinary that Idomeneo was written by one so young, given the endless links to the later operas and the real insight into the characters. In order to keep the evening to under three hours, they have inevitably had to make cuts though Stephen feels that they have been clever about these and have created what he calls ‘a very punchy evening’, which he is very excited about.

Mozart: Idomeneo – Heather Lowe rehearsals for Buxton Festival (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Without a budget for large spectacle, Stephen feels that this avoids one of the areas where directors can come unstuck in the opera by concentrating too much on spectacular effects. Instead, he is taking a psycho-drama approach, as the characterisation in the opera is so rich he is using this to give insight into the extraordinary human characters.

Stephen points out that nowadays society is far more secular than it was in Mozart’s day, and few people believe the explicit religious imperatives of the plot. Instead, Stephen is exploring the real motivation underlying the religious symbols, what they actually symbolise. He cites Idomeneo’s guilt; he sends 100s of young men to their death yet his son survives, and the oath that he takes reflects this suffering. This approach takes Idomeneo into the realms of PTSD, and Stephen calls the piece a really extraordinary psychological study.

Stephen points out that people suffering from PTSD that people do hear voices, and the psychosis can lead to self-harm. In Idomeneo, Stephen translates that into Idomeneo’s attitude to his son, he cannot harm himself any more so he harms his son. But Stephen is taking a non-specific approach, and it is up to the audience to decide whether Idomeneo is really possessed by the god Neptune, but by implication he simply hears voices. You don’t have to deny the presence of the monster, but it is what happens inside of Idomeneo’s head which really interests Stephen rather than the possibility of spectacle with the scene of the monsters.

Mozart: Idomeneo – Ben Thapa & Rebecca Bottone in rehearsals for Buxton Festival (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

For Stephen, none of the characters in the opera is predictable. Ilia is a romantic, yet is as tough as old boots and resists her own sentiment, finding the courage to sacrifice herself for Idamante. With Elettra, Stephen finds it too easy to portray her as a crazy fury and harridan. Her middle aria says that she is seductive, sexy and heartwarming, whilst her two other arias suggest that when pushed to extremes she will snap, though in mitigation there is her extraordinary family trauma (with her brother Orestes killing her mother Clytemnestra in revenge for Clytemnestra’s murder of their father Agamemnon). So that whilst there is almost a girlish quality to the middle aria, she snaps in the last one.

Whilst most of the characters have already gone through extraordinary suffering, which can give a schizophrenic aspect to their character, Idamante has not suffered yet and so he is the character which develops the most over the course of the opera. He starts off rather naive, he just does not understand the weight of history which troubles Ilia. Through her, he learns what suffering is, and come to understand that the only way to save the nation is to sacrifice himself. We see how he grows through the opera and becomes worthy of taking over from Idomeneo.

Stephen fell into directing opera by accident. His first job was as ASM at the Royal Nothern College of Music (RNCM). He took the job not because it was opera, but he wanted to work in the theatre and needed to get his Equity Card! At the RNCM he met Malcolm Fraser, who founded the Buxton Festival and simply fell in love with opera. This was a strong period at RNCM where the students included Jane Eaglen, Paul Nilon (who sings the title role in Buxton’s Idomeneo), Louise Winter and Anne Dawson.

Having directed only plays at University, at the RNCM Stephen completely fell in love with opera as an art form, but he comes from a musical family so his love of opera is not completely surprising. He went on to do a post-graduate course at the London Drama School, but he had already formed lots of contacts including with Buxton, Wexford and Glyndebourne festivals, and he would go on to become a staff director at Glyndebourne.

Gluck: Orfeo ed Eurydice – Michael Chance – directed by Stephen Medcalf at the Buxton Festival 2014 (Photo Robert Workman)

Stephen doesn’t have a specific directorial style. He works with a lot of different designers and feels that a strong directorial style can often come out of the design aspects of the production. He does feel that he takes a reasonably honest approach to the works, with detailed personen regie. He prefers not to overcomplicate things or be too elaborate, with not too much hi-tech. When working with singers, he respects the vocal lines, and always starts with the music. He aims for simplicity and clarity of storytelling.

It is perhaps important to mention here that Stephen is married to a singer (soprano Susan Gritton) which gives him an understanding of what singers go through. He calls it one of the hardest jobs and points out that there is nowadays a requirement to be a first class actor and singer. He does add that there are always great voices which escape the requirement of being a good actor, but most singers are expected to be good all round. Stephen points out how vulnerable the voice is, how easily a cold, emotion or stress can affect it, not to mention the sheer effort to produce the sound. This has given him a real respect for singers.

Peter Hall, with whom he worked at Glyndebourne, was a big influence on Stephen. He learned from Peter Hall’s whole approach and then worked out what worked for him. Stephen also worked on Trevor Nunn’s production of Porgy and Bess at Glyndebourne, they were virtually the only two white people involved in the staging. He describes it as a very special show, getting standing ovations every night.

Stephen learned a lot from Peter Sellars at Glyndebourne, Stephen calls him an extraordinary talent both as a musician, and a human being. Sellers has the ability to charm and befriend the whole company, and would know the name for the third stage-crew from the back! Stephen tries to embrace this approach, acknowledging every single member of the company, and the fact that Stephen did two years as an ASM at the RNCM certainly influences this attitude and whilst at the RNCM, Stephen benefited from working with Tim Albery. But he goes on to add that perhaps you learn more, in a different way, from directors whom you don’t respect!

Stuart Laing, Kristy Swift & ensemble – Beethoven’s Leonore directed by Stephen Medcalf at the 2016 Buxton Festival – photo Robert Workman

Finally, whilst talking about directorial influences, Stephen returns to Malcolm Fraser from whom he learned the building blocks of his trade. And so, returning to Buxton to direct his favourite piece with a super cast feels like a great big present.

Further ahead he has Handel’s Ariodante in Passau, Hansel and Gretel at Grange Park Opera (in a production originally at the RNCM), Carmen in Cagliari and La Gioconda.

The Buxton International Festival runs from 6 to 22 July 2018. Stephen Medcalf’s new production of Mozart’s Idomeneo opens on 8 July 2018 at Buxton Opera House, with Paul Nilon as Idomeneo, Rebecca Bottone as Ilia, Heather Lowe as Idamante, Madeleine Pierard as Elettra and Ben Thapa as Arbace, with Nicholas Kok conducting the Northern Chamber Orchestra. Full details from the festival website.

Elsewhere on this blog:

Handel’s finest arias for base voice – Christopher Purves, Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo (★★★★★)  – CD review

Story-telling in America: Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at Grange Park Opera (★★★★) – Opera review

Each a world unto itself: Arvo Pärt The Symphonies (★★★★) – CD review

Intimate, candid and completely fascinating: The Tchaikovsky Papers – unlocking the family archive (★★★★) – book review

Notable debuts & a veteran director: Die Entführung aus dem Serail from the Grange Festival – opera review

Vivid drama: Handel’s Agrippina at The Grange Festival  (★★★★★) – opera review

Rip-roaring fun: Elena Langer’s Rhondda Rips It Up! (★★★★) – music theatre review

Debut: Soprano Chen Reiss sings her first staged Zerlina for her Covent Garden debut  – interview

Powerfully uplifting: Bach’s Mass in B minor from the Dunedin Consort (★★★★★) – concert review

Brilliant ensemble: Cole Porter’s Kiss me Kate from Opera North (★★★★½) – music theatre review

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