Opera Intrigue
The Age
Thursday February 29, 1996
SUNDAY.
The House: Inside the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Channel 2, 9.30pm.
WHY did he do it? Why did Jeremy Isaacs, the general director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, allow a BBC crew unrestricted access to his organisation - The House, in CG terminology?
The first episode of this six-part documentary series is almost as riveting as opera itself. Indeed, were The House The Ring, it could take its place almost without rehearsal.
Wagner predicated The Ring on treachery, deceit and misappropriation: one cannot help but think how such qualities could only help the hard-working staff of the Royal Opera House.
The ``cast" of The House includes a character of Scarpia- like sinister suavity, Covent Garden's director of public affairs, a Thatcherite skinhead called Keith Cooper. In the first episode, Star Struck, he is rebuilding his empire - sacking his box-office manager, closing the economically unproductive Covent Garden Shop (without telling its manager) and talking about hate mail from his own staff.
We don't see that much opera (or, in later episodes, ballet) performance in The House, except when it pertains to some continuing situation backstage. All The House can ever hope to achieve is a glimpse of the constantly shifting environment of a large, productive arts organisation.
This said, The House is compelling and as tightly directed (by Michael Waldman) as a Verdi score. Bravo!
© 1996 The Age
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