The Fairy Queen
Longborough Festival
Opera *****
‘The Fairy
Queen’ is often described as a “Restoration spectacular” and that term
certainly proved to be apt in this fresh and vibrant take on Purcell’s
semi-opera: a fascinating mash-up of baroque and folk music, interwoven with chunks
of Shakespeare’s text from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that – whilst the
inspiration for Purcell’s work – forms no part of the composer’s original libretto;
indeed, this new production was as much ‘semi-play’ as ‘semi-opera’.
What so
easily could have been an unhappy marriage of mixed musical styles was anything
but in the sensitive hands of Co-Music Directors Harry Sever & Naomi
Burrell; their realisation blended these styles seamlessly, and of course so
many of Purcell’s masques in ‘The Fairy Queen’ are close in idiom to folk music
of the time.
In the hands
of Director Polly Graham and Designer Nate Gibson, Shakespeare’s wood became an
abandoned urban theme park, complete with giant swan (referenced in Purcell’s
music) and ice cream cone, whilst the costumes included a liberal sprinkling of
glitter and spangle.
The extensive
young cast (including members of Longborough’s Emerging Artist Programme and
youth chorus) threw themselves into this fantastical world with enthusiasm and
commitment. The Athens lover’s quartet of Hermia (Helen Broomfield, soprano),
Lysander (Peter Edge, bass-baritone), Helena (Annie Reilly, mezzo-soprano), and
Demetrius (Luke Horner, tenor) were well matched, with polished blend in their
various combinations. Of the tradesmen, Bottom (baritone George Robarts) did a
fine comedic turn when transformed into an ass, his voice hee-hawing as if it
was breaking; Robarts also doubled up as the stuttering Drunken Poet in
Purcell’s aria whose inebriation would have made Dudley Moore proud.
There was
convincing interplay between the quarrelling Titania (Rachel Speirs, soprano)
and Oberon (Lars Fischer, tenor), whilst Alys Mererid Roberts (soprano) coloratura-like
Flute/Fairy 1 revelled in Purcell’s wordplay (“Trip it, trip it in a ring”). The
chorus acquitted themselves admirably too, and a musical highlight for this
reviewer was “Hush, no more, be silent”, sung in ‘surround sound’ by all singers
from every corner and side aisle of the auditorium, enveloping the audience.
Special
mention must be made of the nine instrumentalists, led so ably by Sever (keyboard/accordion)
and Burrell (violin). Starting in the pit, they migrated one by one to the
stage, fully integrating themselves into the drama – quite literally as
“character players” – playing from memory for much of the evening, with
outstanding style and panache; it also may be the only time I will see baroque
specialists wearing deeley boppers!
Anthony Bradbury