Dear Editor,
I set out on the evening of 10 July without much enthusiasm, I had had a busy day and Placido Domingo was on television, but I found my loyalty well repaid by Bill Risebero’s production of Antony and Cleopatra.
A play consisting mostly of short scenes which jump from place to place could have become slow and fragmentary, but Bill’s simple staging kept it fluid. Changes of mood and location were made easy to follow by the lighting, the music played live on suitably archaic instruments, and the costumes, among the best I have seen in Hampstead, which effectively contrasted the sensuality of Egypt with the buttoned-up austerity of Rome.
There were strong performances, notably from Adam Sutcliffe as Octavius, authoritative though perhaps not cold enough to contrast with David Gardner’s passionate Antony; but the evening belonged, as perhaps it should, to Cleopatra.
Gaynor Bassey has given many fine performances, not least in my own productions, but as Cleopatra she surpassed herself. Rising to the challenge of one of Shakespeare’s most complex heroines she was flirtatious, playful, angry, grief-stricken and finally tragically dignified. She dominated the stage, every inch a queen – when I saw her later she seemed several inches shorter.
Arriving home I found that my video machine had failed to record the opera, but a few moments annoyance were dispelled by the thought that although I had missed Domingo I had seen Gaynor Bassey’s Cleopatra.
Antony and Cleaopatra � a biased view
Ian East