Janos Gereben writes of ENO's "shortcomings":

>There is an unyielding stubbornness in singing a fundamentally Russian
>opera (written by Prokofiev to his own adaptation of Tolstoy's novel) in
>English, in mostly incomprehensible diction, and - inexcusably - without
>projected supertitles.

But, my dear Mr Gereben, that is precisely what ENO exits for.  Its charter
states that its role is to perform opera in the vernacular.  If we want it
in Russian, we can go to the Other Place (ROH Covent Garden) or better
still Moscow - which is probably a cheaper option, flight included.

(Though as a special dispensation ENO do perform "Oedipus Rex" in Latin,
with vernacular narrator as stipulated.)

I have no wish to open the piffling, antiquated and generally pompous
debate about "Opera in English".  Suffice it to say, that one might just as
well play stubborn old King Canute with the tides as try to hector the ENO
into performing in anything other than English.  That is their job, whether
Mr Gereben likes it or not.

And, while I'm about it, many of us do hate those lousy surtitles,
you know.  If people want to watch TV they should stay at home and stare
at that.  Many prefer to watch the stage without having these dumbing
distractions foisted on them.  Except when they are unintentionally comic,
which is often, they are a mere nuisance invented to pacify the terminally
lazy.

"War and Peace" would be equally incomprehensible in Russian, I believe,
to non-Russian speakers like 99.9% of the London audience; so my advice to
Mr Gereben would be to try reading the synopsis in the programme, if the
narrative defeats him - or better still study the libretto before he sets
out.

>To my best recollection, neither Tolstoy nor Prokofiev used a bag lady
>to make a point (what point?) - and if that makes me a purist, even a
>retro-bourgeois-reactionary one, so be it.  I prefer innovations that make
>a difference.

No, this doesn't make Mr Gereben a purist; but why is he so closed to what
Tim Albery was trying to do? The image of the shopping bag clearly links
"War and Peace" to Prokoviev's peer Shostakovich, in particular his 13th
Symphony, with its supermarket cans - thus making a cogent point about what
needs to be fought for and against in poor suffering Russia, in 2012 as
much as 1812, fighting against Western domination.  A simple image, really,
it you think about it.

Since Brecht, theatre tends to work in this way, by suggestion and
dissociation, and most theatre audiences in England at least welcome
this stimulus to their thought processes.  The ENO exists for just such
a theatre audience, and not for easy-listening opera buffs.  They go to
Covent Garden.

The examples Me Gereben cites are not innovations, just passing
interpretations of what is by now, at ENO at least, a pretty well known
work - I first saw it there thirty years ago.  They don't affect the score,
which would be innovation.  And in any case it clearly did after all make
a difference to Mr Gereben's perception of the evening, albeit a sadly
negative one.

Mercifully, opera audiences at ENO aren't quite so unbending as stern Mr
Gereben.  Astounding though the idea may seem to him and his ilk, they do
like a little theatre with their opera, and in a language they have at
least a fighting chance to understand.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!" The Spanish Music Site