Three wonderful afternoon operas
IN ADDITION to the three main evening operas, there is a programme of three daytime Shortworks which will be staged in Clayton Whites Hotel with its newly configured audience seating plan.
The three intimate productions include the farcical short opera Il Campanello (The Night Bell) by Gaetano Donezetti, Riders to the Sea by Ralph Vaughan Williams based on the Irish play by John Millington Synge and The Bear by William Walton, after a vaudeville by Anton Chekhov.
Approximately one hour in length, the Shortworks operas allow audiences to enjoy an original short opera or a condensed version of a more familiar opera. the absence of a starring tenor role - the comedy is carried mostly by the bass (Don Annibale) and baritone (Enrico), the latter having an especially virtuosic part full of musical and dramatic possibilities.
Il Campanello is an attractive complement to this season’s much darker Donizetti opera.
Riders to the Sea by Ralph Vaughan Williams. An opera in one act to a libretto by the composer after John Millington Synge’s play. Clayton Whites Hotel October 28, 3.30pm; October 31, 3.30pm; November 3, 3.30pm; November 6, 11am.
The composer’s magnum opus was The Pilgrim’s Progress, a project that occupied him for about 40 years but many fans believe Riders to the Sea is one of his greatest masterpieces.
Because of its brevity, Riders has struggled to be included in opera house programmes but Wexford Festival Opera’s Shortworks is an idea’ place to experience it, especially given its Irish roots.
Composed in 1927 but not heard until a decade later, Riders to the Sea is based almost verbatim on J.M. Synge’s early 20th century drama of the same name. Music of eerie beauty illuminates the theme of watery death as experienced by the Aran Islanders, west of Galway.
The central role is that of Maurya who loses her husband and six sons to the sea, experiencing a strange cathartic release when her last son’s death leaves her with nothing more to fear.
Realising the sea can hurt her no longer, Maurya concludes: ‘No man at all can be living for ever and we must be satisfied.’
The story is evoked by VaughanWilliams in music that captures the harshness of the islands and brutality of the sea.
The Bear by William Walton, an extravaganza in one act to a libretto by Paul Dehn and Walton after a vaudeville by Anton Chekhov. Clayton Whites Hotel October 29, 3.30pm; November 1, 3.30pm; November 4, 3.30pm.
The Bear is small of scale when compared to the composer’s previous and only other opera, Troilus and Cressida which was a huge undertaking with a large cast, full of orchestra and chorus.
It has the same tenderness and bittersweet lyricism which was central to the composer’s style. It is also full of the absurd humour that had been a trait from Walton’s first major work Facade.
His music captures the Chekhovian spirit of a piece set in the Russian provinces of the late 19th century. The central character is Madam Popova, the young widow of a landowner who moves from obsessive bereavement to fiery independence, complaining of her husband’s infidelities.
She is visited by one of Popov’s creditors, the tempestuous Smirnov and when they begin to quarrel, she calls him a bear and a boor. Pistols are drawn but they find themselves unable to fire as they realise they have fallen in love. Observing all the action with bemusement is Popova’s manservant Luka.
The afternoon Shortworks are made possible by the support of the Lord Magan of Castletown TO COINCIDE with the festvial, this Saturday, October 29, at 7pm ‘A Wild Night II’ will be held at Murphy’s Barn, Skeeterpark, Cleariestown. There is an arts programme only (€12) or entertainment and a three-course meal (€50). The arts program features film and installations, a literary-musical performance from Peter Murphy (The Revelator Orchestra), Paula Cox & Paul Creane, contemporary trad percussion group ‘Cuisle’ led by Frank Torpey (Nomos), a secret storyteller, and talks on contemporary arts and food sustainability from art activists Laura Hyland & Alice Planel. Look up ‘A Wild Night II’ on Facebook for more information.