Wednesday 8th / Thursday 9th July
Red Angel and Prima Donna
Very exciting couple of days, very exciting couple of operas and, I must admit, rather PCI-tastic!
I spent Wednesday morning and Thursday rehearsing and recording Red Angel, an opera with libretto by our very own Adam Strickson, over in the Stage@Leeds building. I should explain at this point that Adam is effectively, in PhD terms, my ‘non-identical twin’. We both study ‘Opera as Adaptation’ and are supervised by Kara McKechnie in Performance and Cultural Industries, Rachel Cowgill in Music and we each have an external supervisor at Opera North as part of the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Awards programme. So in the spirit of collaboration I agreed to sing in Red Angel, on which Adam has collaborated with composer, Ayanna Witter-Johnson. I was also invited to interview the pair on their collaborative work.
This opera is a jaunty little piece – I say ‘little’ only in terms of musical resources; it is a story about Africa with a universal human message. A chamber work, it is scored for reduced chorus, string quartet, a handful of soloists and (here’s the pizzazz) two fantastically versatile percussionists with congas, marimba, xylophone, the works! Complex, syncopated rhythms pervade the work – tricky to read but great to listen to!
Adam has gathered performers from across the north of England, and I realised I had already had the pleasure of performing in a concert alongside one of them; percussionist, Enrico Bertelli played in the recent Leeds ‘FOCAM’ gig. He was then performing for UUCMS (Unprecedented, Unprotected, Contemporary Music Set) http://www.brakedrumpercussion.com/uucms.htm on beer cans and breakfast dishes. I was smashing mugs in a wheelbarrow for ‘Projectisle’. http://projectisle.org/ This week we were on the same side!
Around lunchtime, Wednesday, I left with Kara and my fellow PCI postgraduate, Rachel Hann, for Manchester to see the dress rehearsal for Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna for the Manchester International Festival. http://www.mif.co.uk/events/prima-donna/ It was a star-studded affair with the composer present, his famous folkie mum, Kate McGarrigle, and performance artist, Marina Abramovic in attendance.
If opera is generally a bit crazy, then this one is certifiable, but I did like it. The story of a washed up diva, there were certainly flavours of Puccini, Menotti, Philip Glass, a taste of Sondheim, and more than a soupcon of Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith, all mixed up into an originally entertaining concoction. Scenery was glorious, pod capsules rolling on and off in the shape of kitchens and dressing rooms, a rotating lounge, and sumptuous set and costumes. Janis Kelly was marvelous in the lead role, as was Rebecca Bottonne as her maid, Marie. All in French, it felt slightly like an emotionally heightened art film. Being so mesmerised by the voices that I forget to read the titles, I have no idea what actually happened, but I’m not sure that was important in the midst of such a rich, sensuous experience.
Well, I’m back home and I can finally breathe. What a couple of days! OPERATASTIC!
Tags: Opera, Performance, Rehearsals, Research
