Intermezzo, 2015

Christine in Intermezzo

Christine and Baron Lummer in Intermezzo

Garsington Opera Intermezzo

Christine and Robert Storch in Intermezzo

Deeply touching, impressively rich.

Financial Times

Cast

Christine Mary Dunleavy
Robert Storch Mark Stone
Anna Ailish Tynan
Baron Lummer Sam Furness
The Notary Benjamin Bevan
The Notary's Wife Sarah Redgwick
Stroh Oliver Johnston
A Commercial Counsellor James Cleverton
A Legal Counsellor Gerard Collett
A Singer Barnaby Rea

Conductor Jac van Steen
Director Bruno Ravella
Designer Giles Cadle

Garsington Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Synopsis

Act One

The composer Robert Storch is about to leave home for a conducting engagement in Vienna. His wife Christine helps him pack, nagging and bickering with him as she does so.

Left alone, Christine seeks relief from the daily business of running a household by going toboganning. She collides with a skier, the young Baron Lummer, and strikes up a friendship with him. They dance together at a ball at the Gundslee Inn and she arranges for him to have lodgings at the house of her notary.

Their burgeoning friendship cools when the Baron asks Christine for a loan. Opening a letter addressed to her husband, Christine finds what she takes to be a love letter from a young woman, Mitzi Meier, arranging an assignation. She immediately sends a telegram to Storch, demanding a divorce. When she seeks sympathy from her young son, Franzl, the boy defends his father.

Interval

Act Two

In Vienna, Storch is playing Skat, his favourite card game, when the telegram arrives. He is bewildered by the accusations. Another conductor, Stroh, jokes that every man knows Mitzi Meier. Storch, extremely upset, rushes away.

Christine visits the notary to embark on divorce proceedings but he is unwilling to pursue the matter. Frustrated, she sends the Baron to Vienna to uncover evidence of her husband's infidelity.

Storch and Stroh meet in Vienna in the middle of a storm. Stroh admits that his and Storch's surnames have been confused and that the letter was intended for him. Storch asks him to explain matters to Christine as a matter of urgency.

As she prepares to leave both home and husband, Christine receives a telegram from Storch telling her that Stroh is on his way and will explain the misunderstanding.

When her husband returns, Christine is still angry and argues bitterly with him, wanting reassurance and to be justified in feeling that she has not behaved unreasonably.

Baron Lummer returns and Christine sees himn as he is. She realises that her Robert is not only blameless but the only man for her.