Contemporary work features four singers
Given Mahler’s interest and enthusiasm for new music, it’s entirely apt to have a contemporary ( and timely) work as part of the mini- festival. Edward Top is the VSO’S new composer- in- residence; his opera Love Thy
Neighbour was written for the Opera Project in May in collaboration with librettist Tom Cone. Top, who hails from the Netherlands, moved to Vancouver the previous year. “The text is action- driven, moving in a linear narrative from discovery to discovery, quite Aristotelian but there is a big narrative surprise,” Top says. The forces are limited. “Four singers, who could conceivably perform this out of the blue anywhere,” with no instrumental musicians or props, Top says. “It’s a very conservative libretto, one that Verdi or Britten would have understood as classical opera narrative. The story, set in Jerusalem, is really about three religions.” Considering the work’s religious/ ethical concerns in the light of Mahler’s struggles with his religious beliefs, the resonances seem entirely appropriate for the most adventurous add- on to Mahler Plus.
David Gordon Duke Ruckert Lieder with Sarah Fryer and Bramwell Tovey at the piano on Sunday, as well as Brahms’s late Clarinet Quintet, with VSO principal clarinet Jeanette Jonquil. A nod to Mahler as a tireless promoter of new composers and of opera is laid on in the form of VSO composer-in-residence Edward Top’s chamber opera Love Thy Neighbour ( see sidebar).
The festival reaches its climax on Monday evening with the Second Symphony, Mahler’s first exploration of the choral symphony idiom derived from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Sara Fryer is back as mezzo soprano soloist, joined by soprano Marquita Lister and the Vancouver Bach Choir. Conceived on an expansive scale, the Symphony is an example of Mahler at his most inspirational. It culminates in a massive finale almost the same length as many symphonies from the early Classical era, a resounding affirmation and one of the most ecstatic uses of orchestra and choir ever.
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