They say that after the first five shades of grey, the next forty-five all look the same. That’s an awful lot of grey - but apparently not enough for designer Barbara de Limburg, who has created the greyest set in human history for Glyndebourne’s new production of “Béatrice et Bénédict” by Berlioz.The 1862 opera is based on Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” The story, if you recall, opens with wild celebrations following a military victory so you’d be forgiven for expecting an explosion of exuberance, colour and joy. Director Laurent Pelly chooses instead to create a buttoned-up 1940s atmosphere of repression and conformity. Everyone wears the same grey colours. They move in unison. They live in drab little boxes.Even Pete Seeger allowed his little boxes to be colourful. Not Pelly.It looks dull as dishwater, but on the positive side it shows just how free-spirited and unconventional the hero and heroine are. As soon as Béatrice and Bénédict start quipping and railing at the stultifying conventions of marriage, you understand just how non-conformist they are. It helps too that mezzo Stéphanie d’Oustrac and tenor Paul Appleby are superb as the sparring couple. Both are good actors, both have beautiful, flexible voices, and both create rounded – and intriguingly neurotic - comic characters.Berlioz’s opera isn’t performed very often, principally because of the stretches of unwieldy French dialogue between the musical numbers, but also because of certain dramaturgical problems. Béatrice appears only briefly in Act 1, and only sings one number (a duet with Bénédict) before the interval. There are also some sluggish comic scenes involving a deluded composer called Somarone (Lionel Lhote). With these difficulties, it seems curious that the director chooses not to help the action along with some visual variety.The variety appears in the pit instead. Conductor Antonello Manacorda brings spit-spot clarity, shimmering delicacy and irresistible joie de vivre to a score which Berlioz called “a caprice written with the point of a needle.” It’s a delight to hear, if not always to see.“Béatrice et Bénédict” is in repertoire at Glyndebourne.
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