London Philharmonic Orchestra; Edward Gardner conductor. Cast – Robert Murray, Mark; Rachel Nicholls, Jenifer; Ashley Riches, King Fisher; Jennifer France, Bella; Toby Spence, Jack; Claire Barnett-Jones, Sosostris; Susan Bickley, She-Ancient; Joshua Bloom, He-Ancient. London Philharmonic Choir, English National Opera Chorus
I got to know this work quite well as a student and bought the vinyl set of the late 60s recording by Colin Davis from the Covent Garden production of that time. But I have for one reason or another always been out of the country or unavailable when any stagings have happened since. So a live performance of this work was a first for me, and given the likely span of my life and the unlikelihood of another UK production, is probably the last as well. I’d be happy for this prediction to be proved wrong – in fact there have been performances every 10 years or so – ROHCG 1996 and 2005, Proms 2013. but I am not sure I’ll make it to the next one!
The RFH was packed, with a great atmosphere and amazingly there were two choruses – the ENO one and the LPO choir. Given the pandemic restrictions until recently on choruses rehearsing, the performance of the latter was remarkable. The LPO under Gardner sounded crisp and alert in this very-difficult-to-play work – the woodwind in particular bubbled and frothed just as they should.
So how did it all seem, so many years since I last listened to anything from the work except the Ritual Dances and Mark/Sosostris’ arias, and how did it all hang together? In many ways if you had a big video screen behind the chorus with changing relevant images on it, a concert/oratorio performance might be the best way to present this work, which does seem to have a number of dramatic flaws. Oddly, for a work that is about personal transformation, the two characters who are transformed, Mark and Jenifer, are for the most part remote cyphers whom an audience cannot relate to (apart from Mark’s wonderful Act 1 aria). Several of the arias seem to go on too long for the structure of the piece e.g Sosostris’ in Act 3, and Bella’s in Act 2 about making up her face. With the best will in the world, and even with the knowledge that it is so already with you, some of the text is not just very obscure but doesn’t particularly help us to understand the changes taking place to Mark and Jenifer. Bella has become with time a toe-curlingly outdated 50s female stereotype – even with all the Papageno/Papagena parallels acknowledged. Large parts of Act 2 are a ballet. Dramatically it is very static indeed. The performance was described as a semi – staging, but all that meant in effect is characters moving off and on stage instead of being on stage all the time – there was no attempt at acting by anyone except Bella. Having it all as an oratorio would also mean that you could afford a larger chorus of the size we heard here, which gives immense power to some of the most impressive moments of the score – eg Fire in Summer, the last of the ritual dances.
The advantage of a concert performance thus is that it minimises some of the dramatic flaws and allows a greater focus on the absolutely glorious music, which, far more than the words, or what’s happening on stage, really does give us a sense of what true changes in how we live might feel and sound like. Tippett’s music sounds like no-one else’s, and its glitter, the warmth, the contrapuntal energy, the lyricism and its beauty are overwhelming. Though you can hear the influence of Tudor choral music at times, the music is unique – always absorbing and never routine, and conveys an intoxicating joy at being alive, something I saw personified in Tippett himself when I saw him conduct/appear at concerts. Somehow the teeming contrapuntal energy of the music is a mirror for the miraculous vitality of the world Tippett tries to depict in his libretto (and the music then takes on a life of its own. The work almost becomes a celebration of music itself). The choral repetition of the climax of Sosostris’ aria ‘I am who was, is and shall be’ was overwhelming and had me in tears.
The cast was never less than very good. Robert Murray as Mark was perhaps the least impressive – he was not always able to sing over the orchestra. The voices used for this role have often been heavier tenor types – Alberto Remedios and John Treleaven, for instance – and Murray’s singing was less lyrical than, say, Remedios. Rachel Nicholls has of course the voice to cut across the orchestra, but I suspect the part needs a warmer voice and presence, along with the power and coloratura she offered. The best performance – but then the role is much better characterised by Tippett – was by Jennifer France as Bella, who was the only person on stage really trying to act, and who handled her arias in the 2nd act superbly. Ashley Riches and Toby Spence also projected well with their voices and created understandable characters (again, helped by Tippett). Claire Barnett-Jones as Sosostris did her aria marvellously well.
All in all a wonderful evening!! Let’s hope I do make it to the next one 8-10 years hence….I saw Martyn Brabbins in the audience. Might ENO consider a new staging?
John's musical journey 