WILLIAM BYRD ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

WILLIAM BYRD ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

Stondon Singers at Stondon Massey

07.07.15

Imogen Holst's lovely Mass setting of 1927, rarely heard since she composed it while still a student, was the centrepiece of this year's Byrd concert.

Performed with immaculate styling by the Stondons under Christopher Tinker – the graphic setting of “Jesu Christe” in the Gloria and the final “pacem” of the Agnus Dei were beautifully realised – it betrays the influence of her teachers Howells, Dyson and especially Vaughan Williams, as well as the Renaissance masters whose work made up the programme.

Tallis – an assured O Sacrum Convivium – and of course William Byrd, his heartfelt setting of Savonarola's Infelix Ego, dramatically progressing from a tentative “non audeo” to the climactic redemptive “misericordiam”. Plus four motets from the second book of Gradualia, dedicated to his fellow Catholic the First Baron Petre and described in the dedication as “blooms collected in your own garden”. And to end, a light-footed Madrigal, Though Amaryllis Dance in Green.

Always a pleasure to celebrate Byrd in the church by his Stondon Massey house; to sit in the nave he seldom frequented, to listen to a selection of his life's work, and to drink wine in the churchyard where he was “grudgingly” interred in 1623 and still lies in the tranquillity of an unmarked grave.

NORTHANGER ABBEY

NORTHANGER ABBEY

DOT Productions at Brentwood Theatre

04.07.15

Some discussion among the party in row F as to whether this was to be a murder mystery or a love story. Comedy of manners, it turned out, with the accent on the comedy.

Bryan Johnston's light-hearted, ingenious re-working of Jane Austen's first novel is given a lively outing – first date of a six week tour.

An energetic young company of six actors take on ten roles, against a simple set in which the Regency windows of Bath are replaced by the stained glass of the Abbey.  

Anya Hamilton plays our heroine, the pale bookworm whose innocence is tested by the social minefields of Bath society and by the imagined Gothic terrors of the Tilney's family seat.

Two suitors vie for her hand – Andrew Lindfield's hearty Thorpe, bragging about his horse, and Adam Elliott's witty Tilney, mercilessly teasing Miss Morland about the Gothic novel. Elliott also steals a scene or two as Tarquin, Thorpe's long-suffering horse, and even momentarily portrays Dorothy, the ancient retainer, in the literary parody.

Victoria Tyrrell is Tilney's sister, the reluctant chatelaine of Northanger, as well as Catherine's mother and a vivacious Isabella Thorpe.

The Allens, country folk of Fullerton, are played by Roslyn Ure, resplendent in a galleon of a dress and a quiz of a hat, and Leigh Stevenson, who also makes the most of Mrs Thorpe, long lost friend of Mr Allen's wife.

Craig Gilbert's production is finely paced, colourfully if eccentrically costumed, with many inventive touches: the Rank gong at the start, the deception and disappointment from Chapter 11 neatly done in two seconds, and the cast not only arranging their own minimal furniture between scenes – excellently done – but also accompanying their manoeuvres with lively a cappella music.

ALL THE ANGELS

ALL THE ANGELS

Shakespeare's Globe at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

28.06.2015

Mr Haendel, naturalised Brit and national treasure, is no stranger to the capital's stages. A prolific writer of smash-hit operas, he's also appeared more recently as himself, notably in the National Theatre's Coram Boy in 2005.

Here, though, he takes centre stage in a beautifully written play with music which looks at the first ever performance of Messiah, in Dublin, in 1742. In a chiaroscuro candlelight that George Frederick would certainly recognise, a small chorus and an even smaller period instrument ensemble provide wonderful extracts from the magnum opus, while three actors bring the trials and tribulations of that difficult premiere to life.

Sean Campion plays not only Crazy Crow, a kind of 18^th century roadie moonlighting as a “resurrectionist”, but also Jennen the librettist and Lord Cavendish who encourages Handel to open in the Fishambles Music Hall.

Susannah Cibber, the singing actress who sang second soprano in that first performance, was played by a modern singing actress, Kelly Price, who brought a feisty spark to the part, as well as real pathos in her big number – He Was Despised. She was also a very young Charles Burney, bringing Handel his coffee in Chester

The composer was done as a curmudgeonly perfectionist by David Horovitch, battling with illness, fondly recalling the Water Music, bullying and cajoling his prima donna, and reassuring the chorus that their role is key – they are “all the angels”.

All three performances are brilliantly polished; the piece is a perfect fit for this space, as well as a fascinating, if conjectural, exploration of that first triumphant Messiah and the people who created it.

THE HOUSE

THE HOUSE

Opus Anglicanum - Thaxted Festival

28.06.2015

Five singing men and a reader, Opus Anglicanum specialize in “programmes” - themed collections of Words and Music rather after the manner of the BBC Radio 3 anthologies under that name.

Not the first time they've delighted Thaxted Festival audiences; their theme this time was The House, tracing the Manor from the Domesday book to lonely decline in the 20^th century. Beginning with Hinton Manor, - a place called Locus Dei - which became a Priory before succumbing to the Dissolution. Other houses were referenced too, making this a generic rather than specific history. Titchfield Abbey, presented to Thomas Wriothesley – Call-Me-Risley in Wolf Hall – by Henry VIII; Wilton Abbey, Apethorpe and finally Trelowarren in Cornwall, with Lady Vyvyan living a lonely life of “death duties, dust and ruin”. All read with warmth and style by Radio 4 pin-up Zeb Soanes.

John Rowlands-Pritchard's sequence included some musical gems – Tallis, Dowland, Purcell, suiting OA's vocal forces, and this ecclesiastical acoustic, very well indeed. They began with Noel Coward's Stately Homes of England, in a witty, dramatic arrangement by Roland Robertson, included a patriotic medley from HMS Pinafore, and a rare Elgar part-song setting of Walter de la Mare, ending with RVW's Greensleeves.

CHRISTINE THE MUSICAL

CHRISTINE THE MUSICAL

CTM Productions at the Mercury Theatre Colchester

26.06.2015

for The Public Reviews

This tuneful true-life story first surfaced in 2012, just before Lord Lloyd Webber's ill-fated “Stephen Ward”, a musical which ploughs the same murky waters.

They share the same [real-life] characters in Christine Keeler's colourful life, and one song title [“You've Never Had It So Good” - © H MacMillan]. In many ways this modest show is the better piece, not least because of the catchy, pastiche numbers by Tony Franchi, who also produced, and co-wrote the book with Marion Wells. Franchi's musical education dates back to the pop scene of the early 60s, and this shows in the scoring of songs like the Act One finale [with its cheesy kick-line] and Bedroom Rock which opens the second half with suggestive shadow-play on a bed-sheet screen.

Sixteen songs in all – a generous helping in a piece that runs a bare two hours including interval. The title number – My Name's Christine – is perhaps the most memorable, and is reprised at the end of the closing scene with that iconic chair.

The “Style” duet with Ward is effective too, as is the wistful tribute to female celebrity [Jackie Kennedy, the Virgin Queen] “Famous Like Her”. Rice-Davies, “star of the Show” at the Old Bailey, also has a typically Sixties novelty number [Adam and Eve, Bonaparte and Josephine] - “Well, He Would Say That”. Ivanov the Soviet spy is given a lovely clap-along [if over-extended] hymn to Wodka, and Profumo an amusingly operatic [if over-extended] aria Make Love Not War.

Lindsay Lloyd's production starts strikingly with wild gun-shots and a clever bit of knock-off newsreel. It's all set amid the gilded chairs of Murray's topless bar, where Keeler first meets Ward, with back-projections of key cultural moments – Buddy Holly and the Hovercraft, the Mini and the Pill – and Homes and Gardens plates of, presumably, the Cliveden interiors where the notorious sex romps went on. The pace was occasionally hampered by momentary pauses between the scenes, but there were lots of ingenious ideas and plenty of laughs to keep the enthusiastic audience on-side.

And some excellent performances, too. Ashleigh Cole as the ordinary girl from Slough who brought down a government before she was old enough to vote, Angie Diggens as her pal Mandy – as someone says, perfect double act, blonde and brunette, head and heart, John Roberts as the louche, avuncular Pops and Kevin Topple holding it all together as the Hack narrator, with his cynical air and his lived-in, seen-it-all face. David Rutter is Profumo, powerful in his resignation scene, though that big number needs a lot of selling, and Olly Medlicott is the sleazy “almost Harley Street” Dr Stephen Ward.

House Band at the Cabaret Club – the Sex Tets – raised on a dais behind the action provide excellent backing under MD John Chillingworth.

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews