(sung in English, as Orpheus and Eurydice)
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Orfeo – Paul Featherstone
Euridice – Pamela Hay
Amor – Joanna Foote
Mark Tinkler (director)
Alex Hopkins, Fridthjofur
Thorsteinsson (lighting)
Maddy Rita Faye, Denisa
Dumitrescu, Vivian Lu, Anastasia Glazova, Lucia Riley, Isabella van Bracekel,
Eimear Monaghan, Mathias Krajewski, Robin Soutar (set designs)
Robin Soutar, Denisa
Dumitrescu, Lucia Riley, Isabella van Braeckel, Eimear Monaghan (costumes)
Sivan Traub (violin)
Orpheus and Eurydice Chorus (chorus
master: Matthew Watts)
Philip Voldman (musical
director)
No sooner had I bewailed the
lack of Gluck this tercentenary year than I discovered an off-the-beaten
track offering from English Pocket Opera Company. Doubtless our idiotic public
relations companies would describe Orfeo
as ‘iconic’ or some such nonsense; we might be better sticking with ‘one of the
most important operas ever written’. But these performances at Central Saint
Martins are better considered in the light of a four-phase project for children
and young people at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of education. The
first phase has been and gone: EPOC performed Opera Blocks (a one-hour introduction to opera and to Orfeo) to over 10,000 children in Camden
schools. This second is a ‘promenade’ version open to schools and to the
public, in which we walked through the new Central Saint Martins building in
King’s Cross, the eight scenes in different locations, with designs – both sets
and costumes – from members of the college. Phases three and four will be a performance at
the Royal Albert Hall, involving choirs from 55 (!) Camden schools and their
orchestras, aided by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and then
finally work with schools to compose and produce their own versions.
Schoolchildren performed in
the matinée performances; I attended an evening performance so did not have
opportunity to hear them. However, there was a good deal to enjoy in what I
heard. The heroic pianist/musical director Philip Voldman, assisted by
violinist Sivan Traub, really brought those sections of the score performed to
life. Some orchestral passages were to be heard via loudspeaker; there were
some luscious strings to be heard there. However, the way in which these
performances transcended the limitations of the upright pianos was creditable
indeed. Pamela Hay’s Euridice was often touching, with a good sense of style.
Joanna Foote’s Amor was finer still; I should be keen to hear more from her.
Unfortunately, Paul Featherstone struggled stylistically and indeed
intonationally as Orfeo. Nevertheless, Mark Tinkler’s direction of the
characters, Furies included, held the attention throughout the various scenes.
Perhaps an especial highlight was the use of claustrophobic theatre pit for
Hades. Elysium, simply yet imaginatively designed upon the theatre stage itself,
had a distinct sense of ‘place’ too: quite different from what had gone before
and what was come. Excerpts from Die
Zauberflöte and Orphée aux enfers framed
the action, the former for the lovers’ wedding party at the start, the latter
for curtain calls in the bar. Camden Music Service, Central Saint Martins, and
EPOC deserve our praise for offering both reintroduction to and reminder of one
of opera’s very greatest musical dramatists.
