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Alison Wells in Fossils and Monsters
Photo Credit – Claire
Shovelton
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The Opera Festival organised by Tête
à Tête at the Riverside
Studios is now in its seventh year. Running over three weeks from
the 1st to the 18th August this festival
showcases brand new, short, operas, from which the audience can pick
and choose. Each show is about 40 minutes to an hour long, while
‘Light Bites’, at only five minutes long, entertain the audience
in-between the main events, as well as being performed at Fulham
Palace and in parks and squares around Hammersmith.
Last night (Thursday 9th
August) I saw Fossils and Monsters, The Garden, and Vivienne. Short, however, does not mean that these operas are
somehow lesser than grand classical operas. Like a good short story
they get straight to the point. Character development is as strong as
the emotional intelligence delivered by the performers.
Fossils and Monsters compares the
lives of two extraordinary women living at a time of great scientific
discovery and theorising about the nature of life and creation (some
years prior to Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’). Mary Anning was a fossil hunter who found the first ichthyosaur
in the unstable Blue Lias rocks at Lyme Regis. Both Mary and the
ichthyosaur are childhood memories of mine but, as anyone who has
seen Horrible Histories knows, Mary Anning’s life was not equal to
her scientific talent – male scientists who came to her for help in
identifying fossils took credit for her work.
Mary Shelley was brought to life by
Colin Riley (1963 -) in Science Fictions. Similarly to Mary Anning this aria recounts
the life of Mary Shelly as understood by Mary herself. Colin Riley
has provided a recorded accompaniment with elements of eastern music
and western jazz, while Alison was mesmerising as a tortured woman,
unable to sleep and in mourning, discussing the nature of life and
her wish to make the dead live once more as she could in fiction.
Framing these arias were two short
works for clarinet. The first duet, Fanfares, by Christopher
Hobbs (1950 -), who is a pioneer of systemic music (where the
music is predetermined by a mathematical function – much in the
same way as a fractal pattern evolves), was played off stage on Eb
clarinet by Ian Mitchell and Catriona Scott. The three movements are
oddly haunting – setting the mood for the gothic discussions to
follow.
Essay by William
O Smith (1926 -) links everything together. Firstly Ian played
alone on stage with Catriona extending lines or echoing and
supporting phrases, sometimes taking the lead. After a while she
joined Ian on the stage and their performance was enhanced by
shouting, stamping and extended techniques including playing double
notes – resulting in a strange sound something like an eerie
accordion.
The Garden music by John
Harris (1070 -), words by Zinne Harris was in a secret venue.
Meeting at the appropriate time in the lobby we were led by a flight
attendant through the neighbouring estate – but I won’t spoil it
in case you are planning to go tonight! Set in a society where humans
have outgrown our ability to house ourselves and where global warming
is more explicitly evident than today, The Garden explores love
and ordinary madness.
Even before the play began there was a
single tone, reminiscent of the sound of strip light, adding to the
feeling of poverty and industrialisation/ impersonalisation of
humanity. The performers Alan McHugh and Pauline Knowles were perfect
as a couple on the edge. Sometimes speaking, sometimes singing, to a
backdrop of synthesised music provided by the composer himself. As
the emotional intensity on the stage increased so did the involvement
of the accompaniment, sometimes supporting, sometimes interacting,
with the actors.
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| Clare McCaldin in Vivienne
Photo Credit – Claire
Shovelton
|
The story of Vivienne, the final
of the three sets I saw, was a retelling of the life of Vivienne
Haigh-Wood Eliot by Stephen
McNeff (1951 -) and Andy Rashliegh. Accompanied only by the piano
(played by Libby Burgess) this performance by Clare
McCaldin was captivating. Vivienne’s meeting and seduction of
TS Eliot, the sexually unfulfilling marriage and subsequent affair
with ‘Bernie’ Russell, followed by increasing mental instability,
are shown in detail as she compares her life to that of Virginia
Wolfe and Daisy Miller. Again perfectly timed moments of humour lift
the loneliness and despair.
Definitely accessible, all four of the
mini-operas I saw were beautifully crafted and a pleasure to watch.
If this is the standard of the entire festival it is definitely worth
going to. Whether you go to one as an opera ‘taster’ or squeeze
in an evening marathon like I did – there is still just over a week
left to enjoy.
review by Hilary Glover
Elsewhere on this blog:- Win tickets to Live by the Lake, Kenwood
- Grimeborn - Magic Flute
- The Bear goes Walkabout
- Stile Antico - Phoenix Rising - CD review
- Dinner opera at the diner - Roma and La Plus Forte
- Dai Fujikura - Flare - CD review
- Edward Cowie - Gesangbuch - CD review
- Svein Helbig - Pocket Symphonies - CD review
- Libera nos - cry of the oppressed - CD review
- Glyndebourne - Hippolyte et Aricie
- Home
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