King Arthur - Peter Wiegold, Notes Inégales - Spitalfields Festival - photo James Berry |
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on Jun 15 2016
Star rating: 3.5
A multi-ingredient re-working of Purcell's King Arthur which doesn't quite gel
This was billed as "A reimagining of Purcell’s masterpiece like no other", performed by Peter Wiegold, Notes Inégales and Academy Inégales with Alya Marquardt and Iestyn Morris at Wilton's Music Hall on 15 June 2016 as part of the Spitalfields Music Summer Festival. But in many ways it was true to the spirit of those 17th Century entertainments with their eclectic mix of forms, improvisations and set pieces. It was mainly based on the Act III Masque of King Arthur – the Frost Scene, with elements from other parts of the semi-opera including the Pleasures of Love sequence from Act IV.
I saw the second of two sold-out early-evening shows in Wilton’s Music Hall. The audience seemed as eclectic as the line-up on stage: what seemed to be the Baroque crowd and the New-Music crowd cheek by jowl in the tightly packed seating. On the steeply raked stage were Notes Inégales and Academy Inégales plus guests and the two vocal soloists. Off to stage right was the Master of Ceremonies Murray Lachlan Young, with Chris Meade as John Dryden crossing in front, and up in the gallery the singers of Chorale Inégales. On to the backdrop behind the stage May Kindred-Boothby’s characterful animations were projected. The whole ‘concoction’ (as described in the printed programme) was held together by conductor Peter Wiegold with his co-composer Martin Butler on piano.
What we were treated to was a ‘pocket entertainment’ or a ‘pop-up opera’.
King Arthur - Peter Wiegold, Notes Inégales Spitalfields Festival - photo James Berry |
The two allegorical characters played out their not-quite love story on the stage with the chorus commenting on the action. When the story was over the MC came on and told us “Well that’s it”, and suggested we do it all again with “realism and feeling”. And so we had a second go at the story, from the psychiatrist’s chair, and then were told what to think “about love in real life” on the way home.
Purcell was very much in evidence in Wiegold and Butler’s music too. The energy of the 17th-Century Thames Frost Fair and the evocation of the chilly temperatures were created by Western instruments (Torbjörn Hultmark’s virtuoso trumpet solo standing out particularly) supplemented by the other-worldly sounds of the taegŭm flute, Korean wind instruments the piri, taepyeongso and saengwhang, the Syrian kanun and the tabla, as well as the eerie musical saw and a range of percussion. Two somewhat ‘inégal’ principal singers provided the plot around love awakening in the cold: counter tenor Iestyn Morris as the Cold Genius demonstrating a wide vocal range and impressive virtuosity while Alya Marquardt (billed as a soprano), as Cupid, struggled to make herself heard above the band.
By way of a warning, critics were described as vultures – “they won’t get it” says the MC at the end. What this vulture ‘got’ was a sense that the elements were not evenly spread: the music (from the band) gelled very well, but the singers felt like strangers, and the theatrical elements didn’t quite belong with the music. But then again, I imagine the audience was as diverse as the show's ingredients, and so in that respect there was something for everyone.
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford
Club Inégales
Peter Wiegold director/composer/keyboards
Martin Butler composer/piano
Notes Inégales
Academy Inégales
Alya Marquardt soprano
Iestyn Morris coutertenor
Gamin taepyeongso
Maya Youssef kanun
Murray Lachlan Young master of ceremonies
Chorale Inégales
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- Work in progress: Tristan and Isolde at ENO - Opera review
- Laying groundwork for the future: Garsington Opera, and Opera for All - feature
- The design of an opera is a mystery to most people I chat to designer Leslie Travers - interview
- Vivid and intense: Mozart's Don Giovanni from Classical Opera - opera review
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- Terrific celebration: Three large works by Colin Matthews - CD review
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- Listening for silence: Steven Osborne in George Crumb and Morton Feldman - concert review
- Forty parts for forty years: Graham Ross & choir of Clare College, Cambridge in Tallis, Striggio, Swayne at Spitalfields Festival - concert review
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Ruth, you may want to pay more attention. Cupid was played by Iestyn Morris, and Alya Marquardt was Cold Genius.
ReplyDeleteRuth's information was taken from the printed programme.
DeleteRobert