The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 10

10 1986 Micnaei isiuington on a dome, procrocwon at tne uasn Edward Greenfield on Nancy Banks-Srnjth compact version os a grana 1 ligtodf I I. 2s wei? a IbaiGTOO the boot in boss man, hired for a I soecial- mission which in great A 'sailing-ship AimktmS' mil' flnHc as Vtd di's dark -torn opened just, in' scat- teribgV 4 terit.and car dianf, chorus invltUrmoUtfThis new -production, ojfr; Csimon Se keeps asi the central? jfdclis a plebjs dndjftatricians. Bocanea.C:: tlie thy Noble, makes "an sive debut. Hi failure big Coiihcir Chamber. Ensem- frfM-We is ah'oWidjiS; limitation, but otherwise this is a gloriously firni; and; beautiful voice, givihg echoes of Sherrill Milnes in" his prime, well-projected rather than large.

j. Even than most Verdi operasi a work that relief' but on the when- Kurt and Martha smugly congratulate themselves on their security while a police, siren wails in the distance you -know something terrible will happen. But it is precisely because toe is such a theatrical master that I wish (he could find some way of making his positive, pro-union conclusion more ersuasive it is rather as if ophocles' Oedipus decided he was going to join a The-ban social welfare group. Sarah Pia Anderson's production takes the: interval so late (why one at all?) that it highlights the sudden collapse of racking tension. In all other respects the production is excellent: played behind a light gauze and accompanied by a Mike Figgis score, it.

gives; the action just the. right quality of mysterious poetic realism. It is like something remembered in a dream. Both Daniel Webb as Kurt, a dogged, uncomplaining figure driven to suicidal despair, and Veronica Roberts as Martha, horrified at seeing her. pro-tective wall of material comfort piercingly shattered, give exemplary performances that match the clarity of ters in duet: Itfhardlifhiat-ters that the is" 1 are sot-illutaiHat-ing, making 4t at Glyndebourne almostp Veronica Roberts in The Nest Picture -by Douglas Jeffery FRANZ- Xaver Kroetz's The Nest (1975) at the Bush might haye: been writteh "by a Marxist Ibsen.

It is both an attack, on. the capitalist system and, for all its flurry of short scenes, a classically constructed piece in which actio'ps." on vthejr perpretalors and in which' air most every line has a built-. in irony. I -jfound- it totally gripping until the final scenes when Kroetz offers a rather tame solution to the problems he has posed. It begins with the pregnant Martha and her lorry-driver husband Kurt watching an old Kroetz play on television (ironically one that also dealt with the economics of pregnancy and ran into a good deal of controversy).

We then see the young couple totting up in great detail the cost of hav ing a oaby (3U48 manes, au pfennigs) and deciding that Kurt must do more overtime to pay for dt. When their son is born the couple are protective, fussy, placidly happy and periodically retreat to a clandestine bathing spot. But the Aristotelian turning point comes when. Kurt, a born CENTRAL HALL Edward Greenfield Frans Bruggen A NEWLY-restored venue for. music, the Central Hall, Westminster, and a first visit from a major new orchestra to go with it.

The recent record of Frans Briiggen and h's Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century Het Orlccst van de Achttiende Eeuw to use the name it has at home in Holland had whetted our appetites to hear in the flesh an authentic group with a highly distinctive style of its own, one to rival the finest we have in this country. That record contains lively and individual performances of Mozart and Beethoven symphonies, and the big disappointment at first was that in music of a generation earlier much of the sparkle was missing. It was plainly a mistake to begin with a Pavane Samuel Scheldt which underlined the rawness of authentic violin tone, and then to follow it as though it was a related prelude and fugue with the Bicercar from Bach's Art Verdi series with. -Bernard Haitirik-i conducting Peter Hall1. directing.

Promisingly as. the result. Jis, 'all-' the solved. Tfe first is the one- of scale. Though as long ago: as 1938 Glyndebourrie presented, the historic first British production of Macbeth, only one other Verdi opera besides Macbeth has been seen at the Sussex opera hojtee Falstaff.

Shoe- -horning Boccanegra, not just a personal drama but a big into a small, intimate, house is quite another and the1 first to report is the way -that Haitink has vou I musically, accepting', opera on a cnamoer. -scte; not just reinforcing theiipn'wer but underlining the' transparent- beauty. So- after the John'-. Gunt'er; unrelieved 1 ing; 'music -at-1 the start of Act 1 proper has a sweetness and refinement to bely.the acoustic, a trib- -over balance and the fine playing, of the London Philharmonic. With comnarable cunnine Carol Vaness as Amelia is then made to start her cava-tina with her back to the diffusing the Voice so as to match the lightness of the orchestration.

For lust such reasons Puccini regularly had his heroines' voices heard first from offrstage, here.it nicely adjusts tne ear into accepting and men welcoming the. big, dramatic scale of Miss Vaness's soprano. Far more than 'usual the heroine -becomes the centre of the drama: Visually- that scene tvnifies what is disappointing about 'Gunter's sets, which' should -seem far more atmospheric 'than they do. Particularly after the. ultra-realism "of the Gunter sets for Albert Herring the previous an Edwardian illusion perfectly achieved, those for Boccanegra seem only half-finished.

So the moonlight view over the Genoese coast, viewed from under an aw- nine. hasiall the rieht pvnra- tiye' qualities, -ut the utility wans -aown enner side 'with flush doors let into them are too real to be ig-. undermining the illusion: The Council Chamber scene following. presents even" more of a problem. Even Covenf Garden's latest production lacks' necessary grandeur," and there Gunter artd.

Hall make a virtue' of necessity1' by presenting a volves dumping eight barrels of what he takes to be" bad beer'in some secluded place. You can guess where he goes and the likely consequences. What is extraordinary is Kroetz's combination meticulous- detail and prolonged silence: I know of no dramatist who you so about economic background of his characters and, who can make an argument over whether to medium or de luxe pram-linen vitally important part of the play's point is that we treat our children' as material objects. But Kroetz also knows how to twist an audience's nerves to breaking point through silence and then rdm home his knock-out punch the scene where Kurt empties eight barrels of dubious fluid into the water takes almost as many minutes to stage and has you almost crying out in agonised frustration; You get the point a moment later (I won't say how) when you realise that Kroetz is using suspense not playfully but politically. Kroetz is a.

modernist with an antique sense of irony: of Fugue surprisingly stodgy in rhythm. An extended suite from Rameau's masterly last opera, Les Boreades the one which John. Eliot Gardiner did more than anyone to bring to modern life broughtmuch livelier playing. Plainly with Bruggen wind-player himself, the orchestra comes to life more positively when-wind-players join in. The octogenarian composer's jn-, vention in his last months came over well with even a wind machine used for one Entr'acte but it was still, noticeable that slow music was liable to degenerate into sluggishness.

Even from the Rameau I hardly recognised the orchestra I had admired on record, and quite apart from Rameau's distinctive orchestration, the players were using a lower tuning. After the interval for Mozart Jupiter Symphony they tuned up to their more normal pitch There in a flash one was able to relish the Bruggen; sound with large body of strings giving i weight and with horns, trumpets and timpani properly balanced in a way rare in authentic performance. Aptly nibs iuia Daniel Webb and a new flapper all. 1920s; Isht' that dear? It's set in 1926 the General Strike. Really Oh, there wasn't anything dreary like that, it was all nice' middle class people.

was i.this lovely young thing Alva just like you and me when we were arid; such ai flirt too. tAU; iypuhg- men1 were "sending her floerk-arid fruit Wd choose which And my dear-, such set. -All modern' and perspex a sort of outsidrbf. a mansion. She was just off.

Bapi; "no the place. AhdofCcourse, Walter, such a drip-'in glss'esi he'd taken out" gerHoflsils-and 'he wanted to tajte'heSjbut more. You should have Jieard liim sing not mUch a tune, biit, dahiing the words. I'm not- a -dashirfg 'romantic, with a Douglas soul you remember Douglas don't' "And everyone was so charming and wore such pretty -clothes. And so witty like we used' to be.

Franks the coach. Remember Abvssiriia I'll 'be seeing you. Oh I laughedJ And the franrrns Vos danced What hapij Qh really. This Alva Janet Dibley TPD AY- A PAIR of pointed boots get off a coach. Strictly speak-, ing, they should kick a dog.

to establish that they, belong to a villain. For, though the boots are carrying a bunch of flowers, the music is- saying My God, he's going to kill someone." In the hospital the boots take a revolver from the bouquet and wonder aloud whether to waste a bullet on the fat, dying patient. The old, dyuig patient hits him with, something intimately surgical which makes a satisfactory clang, chases him down the corridor, push-, ing his grip energetically before him and him down the laundry chute. Then he returns to bed muttering darkly about the younger generation. If wit is what you don't expect or even if wit isn't, the opening of Moonlighting (BBC 2) is a funny Moonlighting is an American detective series' which returns to the formula, of tht heterosexual You remember spats, the Thirties, The Thin Man, the slim women, the wise-cracking encounters.

The 90-minute film on Monday, a starter for 18 episodes did ho favours. Nine'ty minutes" of- Shepherd' and Bruce. Willis: bickering is like being shut in, a b'ird cage with budgies. Fifty minutes is' much better. There -a gentle sound of bells as your leg is pulled.

Shepherd arid- Willis seem to wander on to a Hollywood set where some film we' faintly remember is being played out around them and about them and almost regardless of them. Gunfight at the So-So Corral indicates what of film they have wandered into this time. An old gunfighter hires them to find a young gunfighter. This is I'm a-coming fer ter git you, Kincaid" country-The low saloon, the high noon, the bullet in the gul let, the lump in the throat. At-the end PatvCorby, the old gunfighter, having wiped the floor with all the young actors, in the cast, walks ofl, down that long, lonely road to die.

Of laughter probably. I greatly Airport 1975' and' on television the opportunities -todo so- attf endless. The one, you know, 'It-. fwvA nmara an alrlinar nanlrtf -needine kidney jtfar and Gloria swanson. self played by Swanson as TV (Her- GlorJa Times puts The liner is strucK oy a private piane in midair the pilot is blinded And nothing stands between Gloria Swanson and her swan-song but sood old Nancy.

the stewardess. We see her get her first les son in flying from ground control the little hand' is on the four, and the big hand on tne nve ana everyone is so kind Nancy's some woman hang in there. Nancy, your doing great, honey." But best of all, when she asks do you read me?" They all reply enthusiastically "we read you, Nancy, we read you." considering her desperate need for reassurance, she shows very little sensitivity about another writer's feel ings. When Charlton Heston asks shyly do you read me Nancy does she reply "of course I do, chuck. I thought your autobiography The Actor's Life was very nice.

Considering." She does not. She savs "no. I can barelv read you." As bitter an in- I suit as was ever cooked up in a cauldron with wool of bat and tongue of dog thrown in. I must say Charlton Heston is extremely decent about it all and sets his jaw (vou can see him setting it in TV Times) but in my view he should have let good old Nancy land her gibbering cargo of nuns and drunks by herself. Geo.

played vcool. as cucumber sandwiches. 1 And only -18, and you know, nothing too below the waist. Purer as Barbara Cartland. We'll actually I can't reriiemher'T the music.

Not "really, Tjie yoiing men Nothing special, for, us-there was GordohrrAlan Cbvertey played him.r artd so. daring, wanted her to be -a -mistress. she wanted Merle from Kensing-toh. It's-such a good sort of address isn't it No, nothing near. the knuckle.

Clean as dear Anria Neagle, and Alva's mother was just the nicest sort of flirt. I mean, dahiing, you can't, go wrong with a show that rhymes footsie and tootsie can you? it's just the thing, for old girls like us. I said' 'Yes some young eirl directed Nica Burns, all full of, ronMring and jolly. Hallo aahirngr yoii haven't fallen asleep. Dahiing?" BATH Meiribri Bowen THE presence of both Messiaen and his wife-Yvonne Loriod at the Bath Festival' guaranteed unusually large audiences for these contemporary music concerts; Indeed, the veteran 77-year-old looking wonderfully benign and grandfatherly.

had to acknowledge standing ovations many-people who had probably not heard, a note of "his music before. True, Simon Rattle's inter-pretation of Messiaen's 'l'urangalila Symphonie (sic) has attained wide circulation in the last couple of years. But for many listeners in Wells Cathedral it's clearly a new and surprising musical experience, A lot of detail was unavoidably lost in the cathedral acoustic and the strings sounded under nourished. But the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra transformed now into a front rank team Under Rattle's direction ensured that' the potential of colour and dynamic level in this gigantic song of love and joy was sensitively realised. The work was aptly prefaced, in this concert, by the Prelude and Liebestod from wagher's Tristan to which the Sym phony is, in part.

Messiaen's response. The piano playing of Yvonne Loriod greatly enlivened a concert by Twentieth Century Ensemble of the Royal college of Music, conducted by George Benjamin. BrUggen observed every one of the repeats including the miraculous second half of the finale. Even with larce forces there was admirable clarity though I am still; "suspicious: of the Central Hll. acoustic, which was disconcerting enough for the 'players to have a few co-ordination, problems.

Next time. I hope we shall hear, them in 1 predictable vsurroundings; 1 KING'S HEAD i Nicholas de Jongh Heyday "Hallo, dahiing, I hope I haven't woken you up but' you, won't guess-what a night-I've. had. No, of course not at my age Pve just come back, from this i frightfully dear little musical you know all 1920s; And: ideally, I'm in Jt Gertie. No, it was new.

Some American actually Hebeft'-Appleman, a professor or. something. He'd, done the book, the lyrics and the music. Said he wanted to do STARTS JjTTVlOTHY DALTON 1 1 recognition between Boccenegra tends to press Carol Vanness as Amelia hard, curbing emotions rather than letting them, expand to the full, he more than compensates in helping to sharpen the focus, with, characters intensified by. their very In the unhelpful Glyndebourne acoustic the closeness adds to the singers' problems.

It is a tribute to -the matching of the cast that clean projection of firm tone is the keynote with John Rawnsley as Paolo a superb foil for Noble's Boccanegra and Robert Lloyd adding even to the power and depth of his Co vent Garden charac-' terisation as Fiesco. The Corsican- tenor, Tibere Raff alii, makes Gabriele into far more than a conventional hero figure, his vocal timbre distinctive with its tight vibrato. Confronting- us elbow to elbow, the Glyndebourne chorus sings with characters- tic vigour in the big ensembles, swirling away' actively as picnickers caught' by the rain. JUST jtw, HHjiiwmnigRB. mm WUDifiBl (Tift parts that other movies cannot reach:" "Smashing.

Intelligent, hilarious. Scorsese remains several steps ahead of his contemporaries." "The film to see Interweaving of ptor and characters. Scorsese comes up Norman JONATHAN -I PRYCE TWIGGY IS' i ftj ii. i p.MiT Bin 1 mbl Hti im, nnm ODDOII I ODEOO I OBBAn I ODBOn Xady 'Jane Grey and Guilford Dudley. Together they ruled England for just nine days.

HAYMARKET I NOTTINGHAM I NEWCASTLE (ChscklocalprsMfordetaai) II WHEN ITS AFTER MIDNIGHT IN NEW YORK CITY LAUGHTER AND TROUBLE, martin Tupvi i aii ciKinMrai scorsese JT BEST i ibi idinuii AMARtlM SCORSESE PICTURE Jane. WW PARAMOUNT PICTURES PRESENTS A PETER SNELL PRODUCTION "tADVIANE" HELENA BONHAM CARTER CABVELWES MUSIC BY STEPHEN OLIVER SCREENPLAY BY DAVID EDGAR STORY BY CHRIS BRYANT 4k BY PETER SNEJX DIRECTED BY TREVOR NUNN LJNDA RORENTINO TERJ GARR JOHN HEARD RICHARD CHEECH MARIN CATHERINE OHARA PRODUCTION DESIGNER JEFFREY TOWNSEND MUSK3HWARDSHOftEEDrrEDBYTHElMASCHQONMAKER WRITTEN BY JOSEPH MINION DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY MICHAEL BflJIHAUS PTODDBYRCNSOH GRIFFIN DUNNE AND ROBERTS COLES8ERRY DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE NOW SHOWING ABA Si dUEB SHAraSBUOTAVEBIr guy NOW SHOWING BOURNBHOUm: Send OHM CHjmfm MNOR IBIXSiER. (17402 MB.T0NKEVKS THE POINT OXF0R0(6Ofg St) nhmihhmnhw ABC.