Alistair Shelton-Smith, Christopher Diffey and Mark Beesley in Edward Lambert's The Catfish Conundrum photo Claire Shovelton |
cast of Leo Geyer's Sideshows photo Alice Potter |
We saw Leo Geyer's opera The Mermaid of Zennor at the 2012 festival (see my review) so I was curious to see this new work; Geyer has just finished the Joint Course at Manchester University and Royal Northern College of Music. Sideshows started out life as a pair of songs, and has been expanded into a theatrical song cycle. It is written for instrumental ensemble with one singer and two dancers. The text is by Martin Kratz, and the show was directed by Joel Fisher, with choreography by Alfred Taylor-Gaunt and costumes by Sebastian Freeburn. As we entered the auditorium for Sideshows we were treated to mood-setting music played off-stage by the instrumental ensemble.
First on stage was the Ringmaster; Geyer himself, who conducted the instrumental ensemble. He introduced each of the clowns - the instrumentalists, Sara Hall (clarinet), Philip Sharp (piano), Tim Rathbone (violin), Michael Newman (cello). After a lively instrumental ensemble there followed the acts. The Palm Reader (soprano Rachel Maby), the Dancing Bear (Rachel Maby with dancer Ash Longshaw), the Snake Charmer (clarinettist Sara Hall with dancer Paris Fiztpatrick), the Bearded Lady and her daughter (Longshaw and Maby) and finally the Fire-eater (Maby). The clownish instrumentalists were fully part of the action, doing far more than playing; each communicating character by playing (Hall was particularly good at this). And when the snake escaped under the stage, everyone got involved to hilarious effect.
The wonderful Bear costume used in Sidewhows |
All the performers were brilliant, and you felt that this was a real ensemble piece, with Geyer's music being performed with deceptive ease whilst clowning around. All in all this is what modern opera should be, complex yet approachable, highly characterised and brilliantly realised.
Catlin Rowley's Breadcrumbs was performed in the concert hall foyer by just two performers, Charlotte Richardson sang Gretel with Clemmie Curd playing the cor anglais (director Omar Shahryar). The work is a long dramatic monologue for Gretel (from Hansel and Gretel) as she is lost in the wood and dreaming of food (and cake!). In the rather echoing foyer space it was rather difficult to pick up the words, but the general drift and rather striking dramatic take on the familiar tale became obvious.
Jill Barlow reviewed Edward Lambert's Six Characters in Search of a Stage on this blog, and I was curious to hear some of Lambert's work. The Catfish Conundrum, in which Edward Lambert wrote both words and music was directed and designed by David Edwards and produced by the Music Troupe. The work is written for five singers and two instrumentalists: the Catfish (Donna Lennard), Lord Goodman (Mark Beesley), Spike Milligan (Christopher Diffey), Newton Harrison (Alistair Shelton-Smith), Ronald Reagan (Joanna Gamble) with violinist Eloisa-Fleur Thom and cellist Max Ruisi, conducted by Edward Lambert.
The work concerns the strange event in 1971 when the Arts Council paid for the artist Newton Harrison to bring from the USA his concept piece Portable Fish Farm, which was to demonstrate and celebrate sustainable food sources notably the Catfish farming from the Missisippi Delta. The piece involved catfishes being electrocuted and then prepared for eating, in public. There was an outcry, Lord Goodman as chairman of the Arts Council got involved and Spike Milligan protested, including breaking the windows in the Hayward Gallery at the exhibition opening.
Max Beesley and Donna Lennard in Edward Lambert's The Catfish Conundrum photo Claire Shovelton |
After the protests, Lord Goodman contemplated what to do (a scene where Beesley sexily smooched with Lennard), before deciding the catfish should be executed in private. The execution (done electric chair style) was not the end. There was the catfish feast and then finally Ronald Reagan (Joanna Gamble, in a large pink dress and wings), proclaimed National Catfish Day.
The result was a rather quirky and entertaining piece which had a very real point to make. Lambert's music is tonal but complex, there are tunes but the music never talked down to you. His vocal lines sounded interesting but singable. There was something of process music about his instrumental writing, he liked setting up figures and letting them run, but he managed to get some remarkably fascinating and complex textures from his quite minimal forces.
Performances were admirable, and all the singers had great charm and stage presence, bringing off their various roles and creating a quirkily entertaining ensemble, but one with a point.
Elsewhere on this blog:
- Tete a Tete: An amusing pair - opera review
- Glyndebourne: Handel Rinaldo - opera review
- Opera Holland Park: Bellini Norma - opera review
- Prom 28: Beethoven, Dean and Stravinsky - concert review
- Celtic echoes: In Praise of St Columba - CD review
- Stephen McNeff: Prometheus Drown'd - opera review
- Our first visit: Tete a Tete:The Opera Festival - opera review
- Accordion sensations: Paul Chamberlain - CD review
- Look no conductor: Nicky Spence and 12 Ensemble - concert review
- Home
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