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Silver Birch (Susan Elkin reviews)

society/company: Garsington Opera (directory)
performance date: 30 Jul 2017
venue: Garsington Open-Air Opera Pavilion, Wormsley
 
This was undoubtedly the most uplifting and moving evening I’ve spent in the theatre this year. A community opera with an all-age cast of 180 (youngest child on stage appeared to be around a year old), Silver Birch, directed by Karen Gillingham, tells the story of Jack who served in Iraq, all set again the community and family he leaves behind. Jessica Duchen who wrote the libretto based Jack’s story partly on the experience of Jay Smith, ex Irish Guards, who was in the audience the night I saw Silver Birch.

The juxtaposition of the children back home playing and taunting in the playground and the horror of the front line – one of the most effective on-stage evocations of war I’ve ever seen was almost unbearably poignant. Roxanna Panufnik’s fine music is full of mood change too. She gives us, for example, a sparky setting of the traditional Soldier Soldier Will You Marry Me? contrasted with the acrobatic, squaddy sequence with chanting and marching to tattoo-style music. It is, incidentally, remarkable what high quality work a highly skilled movement director (Natasha Khamjani) can get from a group of young non-professsionals. There are several series of make-you-gasp flips and somersaults from younger marchers too.

Underlying and underpinning the plot is the ghostly presence of Siegfried Sassoon (Bradley Travis) and quotations from his poetry are woven into the libretto. I saw Silver Birch on the day when people were amassing in Belgium to mark the 100th anniversary of Passchendaele. The futility and sameness of war could not have been clearer.

Six professionals, mostly seasoned Garsington performers, are at the centre of this show and there is a strong collaborative sense of everyone learning from everyone else. Sam Furness (tenor), whose character is deeply damaged by the war, sings with cracking emotion as Jack. Darren Jeffrey (bass) is strong as his father, bullying but actually troubled, Victoria Simmonds delights as his anguished mother, Sarah Redgwick as his teacher and there’s a nice performance from James Way as the (slightly) younger brother who goes to war with Jack and returns injured. On the night I saw the show William Saint played the child, boy-treble little brother, Leo, and Katya Harlan was sweet and feisty as the family’s youngest child, Chloe. She keeps in touch with her favourite brother while he’s away using the password “silver birch” because the nearby tree has grown to maturity during Jack’s lifetime. It, like Jack, is damaged at the end but there’s hope for both.

Part of the aim of Garsington’s community opera (usually once every three years) is to bring in participants and audience who might not usually have anything to do with opera. It seemed to be succeeding at every level. At the beginning we were introduced to some of the people involved including several of the young people (there are young players alongside professionals in the orchestra too), a woman who has “historic domestic abuse issues” and a man related to Seigfried Sassoon. It was also good to see the stage manager, Paul Carr, entertainingly explaining what he and his colleagues, including some youngsters, do.

I really hope that this fine work does not begin and end at Wormsley with three Garsington Opera performances in the heart of idyllic Oxfordshire countryside. It deserves many more outings – soon.

First published by Sardines: http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-Garsington%20Opera-Silver%20Birch&reviewsID=2921
Stars in the Morning Sky
By Alexander Galin. Directed by Helen Tennison
society/company: Drama Studio London (student productions) (directory)
performance date: 28 Jul 2017
venue: Camden People’s Theatre

Alexander Galin’s protest play about the cleansing of Moscow before the 1980 Olympics takes us to a rural lodge (actually a squalid hut with bunks) to which several prostitutes have been removed. The play explores the dynamic between them, two men and the older woman who is – sort of – in charge. A protest play, it presents these women as rounded, damaged human beings who are being shabbily treated by almost everyone they come into contact with. Their only real strength is the bond between them although at times even that is fragile.

Because the play is so firmly anchored in its time frame (the Olympic flame passes by at the end) it often feels like a pretty wordy dinosaur and you can see why it hasn’t enjoyed too many revivals. Nonetheless the six graduating students and their director Helen Tennison do their best with it and some of the themes are interesting. Some of these “girls” have children from whom they’ve been forcibly separated and this is Russia so there’s a massive drink problem, for example. Such issues remain both topical and universal.

Corrine Delacour, of whom I hope we’ll hear and see a lot more very soon, is outstanding as Valentina – the resident “fire warden” who is in effect a cross between a hostel manager and a madame. She is often very still, simply communicating subtly with her very expressive face. She convinces completely. The essence of good acting is that it doesn’t show. Delacour’s work in this play is a powerful illustration of that.

The other five in the cast all have their moments although in every case there are times when the acting seems wooden and therefore very visible. They warm up a lot in the second half, though when Jessica Ivy as Anna screams, shouts and drinks and takes the audience sympathy with her. Natasha Linton’s Laura is much stronger once her character stops pretending to be the posh, well-connected girl she isn’t and drops her fantasy. Alannah King comes into her own at the point when her character has been beaten up and badly injured. Suddenly she makes us care. Ariadne Freya’s Klara is gravelly, hardened and more stereotypically dressed than the others. Then she too sustains an injury and we start to feel for her. Leander Vyvey makes a reasonable fist of the half-decent Nikolai and Tom Dack’s mentally ill young scientist who has escaped from a nearby institution eventually settles into a pleasing performance – probably the hardest part in the play to make interesting.

First published by Sardines http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-Drama%20Studio%20London%20(student%20productions)-Stars%20in%20the%20Morning%20Sky&reviewsID=2920

This show, written by Annabel Wigoder, is a masterclass in witty, engaging, imaginative musical theatre for children. Lewis Carroll’s delightfully silly 19th century nonsense poem is the starting point.

Gareth Cooper’s eight musical numbers are gloriously diverse. The costumes (designed by Justin Nardella) are bright and daft, but also homely – a multicoloured knitted dress for a banker who loses his trousers for instance, and a series of stereotypical nationality hats.

And it’s all played out on a spare set which evokes the London skyline …

Read the rest of this review at Musical Theatre Review http://musicaltheatrereview.com/the-hunting-of-the-snark-vaudeville-theatre-and-touring/

Meet Katy Lipson – at 32, arguably the most successful young producer in the country.

Her company, Aria Entertainment, is currently presenting The Addams Family on tour; while in London, there is  the ambitious three-week From Page to Stage new writing festival running at London’s The Other Palace this month; Yank! – at the Charing Cross Theatre – and Hair, heading for The Vaults in October (both transfers from the Hope Mill Theatre in Lipson’s native Manchester); and The Toxic Avenger (currently at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but then moving on to the Arts Theatre this autumn).

Grass doesn’t get much chance to grow under Lipson’s feet and she talks with rapid fluency and warm enthusiasm …

Read the rest of this interview at Musical Theatre Review http://musicaltheatrereview.com/interview-producer-katy-lipson-makes-her-mark-by-taking-musicals-from-page-to-stage/

Tuesday 01 August 2017

Of course I’ve heard many performances of Verdi’s Requiem and I’ve lost count of the times I’ve sung (alto) in the chorus for amateur attempts. Never, though, have I heard or felt it delivered with such heartfelt passion as in this memorial for Opera Holland Park employee, Debbie Lamprell, who died in nearby Grenfell Tower in June. Every one involved in the performance including two conductors (who swapped before the Offertorio), City of London Sinfonia, all the singers and a huge front of house team had given their services in order to raise funds for the Rugby Portobello Trust which is supporting Grenfell Tower victims.

In many ways, this really is Verdi’s greatest opera. Atheist he was but he certainly understood emotion wherever it springs from. The Lacrymosa (conducted here by Peter Robinson) is a terrific B flat minor dialogue between the woodwind and mezzo. Yvonne Howard who has the clarety richness of an old fashioned contralto in the lower registers squeezed every drop of feeling out of those sexy chromatic shifts.

Anne Sophie-Duprels (who sang the title role in Opera Holland Park’s Zaza this season) started Libera Me in a restrained, understated way – clearly a deliberate decision because she builds it to a terrific climax.

Neal Cooper is very actorly singer to watch and I suspect he’s more at home in opera than oratorio. He throws himself, face screwed up, somewhat disconcertingly into every note although the sound is good especially when he reaches the pianissimo of “Salva me” in the Rex Tremendae movement with all its contrasts and mood shifts.

Bass Barnaby Rea makes a lovely edge-of-your-seat start on the dramatic “Mors” passage in the Tuba Mirum. It’s marked pp but he does it at an even lower dynamic which gives a sense of death creeping in insidiously – and totally appropriately for this particular event. On the other had he sings the rest of his part so gently that it felt more like a rehearsal sing-through than a performance which mean that he was, often , overpowered by the other three when he shouldn’t be.

The chorus sang with immaculate precision, power and control. Many OHP principals and guest artists were included and that really showed.

Full marks too to City of London Sinfonia who played magnificently. There’s something about the layout and acoustic of Opera Holland Park (and the direction of Peter Robinson and Sian Edwards) which allows you to hear aspects of Verdi’s orchestration which usually get muddied away.  There was some delightful, very audible, work in this performance, for example, from principal flute Alison Hayhurst and timpanist Tristan Fry. And what an inspired idea to place the offstage trumpets at the back of the auditorium for Tuba Mirum – total immersion in the last trumpet and the day of judgement.

A note in the programme, signed by Opera Holland Park’s directors James Clutton and Michael Volpe “and the staff and trustees of Investec Opera Holland Park” declares: “We can think of no better way for commemorate the victims or to express our feelings than to make music”. They are right.

First published by Lark Reviews http://www.larkreviews.co.uk/?cat=3

Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Parvo Jarvi
Vilde Frang (violin)
Lawrence Power (viola)

This was a concert which grew in scale as it proceeded. We began with a small string orchestra for Erkki-Sven Tuur’s Flamma, augmented to a chamber orchestra for Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante and finally to a full symphony orchestra for Brahms second symphony. It meant that some players were twiddling their thumbs back stage until after the interval but it also provided a show case for the versatility of this energetic orchestra – there’s so much body movement from players that it’s hard to sit still as you watch although Parvo Jarvi is a relatively unshowy conductor.

The Mozart was the high spot. It’s a real pleasure to hear this glorious, joyful work live with a pair of highly charismatic soloists. I have no idea how well Frang and Power know each other or how much they’ve worked together in the past but they communicate in musically flirtatious twinkles, leaning in towards each other with lots of smiles. At times, especially in the presto, it was like watching a dance. Neither is standoffish and both clearly see themselves as ensemble chamber musicians, often gently playing along with the orchestra. Power is an emphatic player with curiously expressive bouncy knees. The sound blend of their two instruments in the beautiful andante movement is something to treasure.

It is, however, their encore which most attenders at that concert will remember. Both clearly good actors who enjoy a joke they swapped instruments and then proceeded to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star very badly. Power on Frang’s fiddle gradually ran away with the tune until Frang, in mock exasperation, snatched his bow. Then they played Mozart’s showpiece variations with witty aplomb – all great fun.

At the front end of the programme sandwich, the UK premiere of Flamma by Estonian Erkki-Sven Tuur, was full of nicely executed climbing motifs and glissandi along with lots of busily difficult cross string work. Premiered in Canberra in 2011 the piece was inspired by the Australian experience of fire.

And finally to Brahms 2; a cheerful upbeat work after the angst of the first symphony, as the composer himself said. I enjoyed the freshness of the sound which comes from Jarvi’s splitting first and second violins by putting violas and cellos in the middle – with basses behind the firsts and timpanist in the body of the orchestra. In an understated but quite vibrant performance, Jarvi calmly allows the dynamics to stress the drama, especially in the Allegro con spirito fourth movement with its very soft fidgety string passages contrasted with big Brahmsian melodies.

First published by Lark Reviews http://www.larkreviews.co.uk/?cat=3

Imaginative programming meant there were three contrasting styles from three different centuries in this vibrant concert. All credit to the BBC too for investing in an expensive modern work (The Greatest Happiness Principle by David Sawer) which requires seven percussionists, harp, masses of brass and extra strings most of whom were not required in the rest of the programme. It would have been more economical to pair it with, say, a Mahler symphony but more original and probably more enlightening to hear it before Haydn.

The evening began with a thoughtful rendering of Brahms’s First Piano Concerto with its compelling D minor melancholy and mood swings. Stephen Hough gave a highly accomplished performance including a sumptuously lyrical middle movement.  Both grandiloquent Brahms piano concerti are effectively big symphonies with a piano part. It was interesting, therefore to see Hough turning respectfully away from the audience and piano whenever he wasn’t playing to watch Mark Wigglesworth and the orchestra of which he evidently regards himself as part. He’s a totally unprima-donna-ish team player.  It took Wigglesworth a while to get the orchestra into overdrive – the strings sounded hesitant in the first movement’s exposed pianissimo passages – but they played  with panache once warmed up.

The 1997 Sawer piece is a rhythmic and unexpectedly melodius exploration of symmetry inspired by Jeremy Bentham’s design for a new prison at Milbank where Tate Britain now stands. Wigglesworth and the BBC Philharmonic had a lot of fun with all that percussion and repeated phrases with lots of colourful variation. And, of course, David Sawer was the only one of the three composers who was bodily present in the hall – the others were there only in spirit.

And so to reduced forces and Haydn’s 99th symphony. In this perky work Wigglesworth established a fine balance between tempi and dynamics to allow all the orchestral detail to shine smilingly through. He gave us a crisp and witty first movement, a minuet which really danced into the trio and caught most of the audience by exaggerating that typical Haydn joke – the false ending.

First published by Lark Reviews http://www.larkreviews.co.uk/?cat=3

 

Tuesday 25 July 2017
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
CBSO Youth Chorus
John Wilson

It’s a quirky but rather lovely idea for a Scottish orchestra to play two works by quintessentially English composers. The 5,000 people who packed the Royal Albert Hall to the gunwhales for this concert had clearly – and wisely – left politics, devolution, referenda and the rest at the door.

Vaughan Williams’s 1958 ninth and last symphony is a valedictory work in soulful E minor. It bears all the usual RVW hallmarks such as lush lyrical string passages in the second movement, the strident crunchy brass chords and, of course, reluctance to stick to the same time signature for more than a line or two.  Leader Laura Samuel made something pretty special of the The Lark Ascending-like violin solo and, in a spirited rendering, Wilson carefully emphasised the contrasts in texture and rhythm. He also made sure we sensed the finality and gravitas of the ending – this is a composer very close to the end of his life.

The symphony requires quite large forces which is another reason for its pairing well with The Planets. A few extra players arrived after the interval to complete the double brass and six-strong percussion section, but not that many. And then we were in for a real treat. Familiarity does not detract from the wonder of this spell-binding work played here with incisive warmth and exemplary textual accuracy. From the busy, mysterious, relentless 5|4 of Mars to the magic of the CBSO youth chorus tucked away on the top balcony (chorus master: Julian Wilkins) for remote, mystical Neptune, this was a riveting performance.  Wilson’s take on Uranus is exaggerated and comical – the man next to me (another critic, I think) actually laughed at the organ flourish. And I was much more aware in this performance than I usually am that Mercury is another name for quicksilver – the precise mood Wilson coaxes from the orchestra. The ending was the thing I shall long remember about this concert, though, as the top notes from the choir gradually silenced the orchestra. I’ve rarely head it done with such control or been so acutely aware of 5,000 people listening intently.

Another positive thing about this concert incidentally, in a week when we’ve heard an awful lot about gender imbalance in the media and the arts, is to see women so well represented in almost every section of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Bravo.

First published by Lark Reviews: http://www.larkreviews.co.uk/?cat=3