The week in classical A Feast in the Time of Plague; Fidelio; Alban Gerhardt and Markus Becker – review
almost 5 years in The guardian
Grange Park Opera, Surrey; Garsington Opera, Oxfordshire; Wigmore Hall, LondonGrange Park Opera serves up a delicious cast for the world premiere of Alex Woolf and David Pountney’s timely new opera, commissioned and written in lockdown
“One thing you can say about the arts,” begins a truism uttered on an almost daily basis during this pandemic, mostly by those not trying to do “arts” themselves, is that they flourish in the face of adversity. This kind of tired thinking is dangerous. It’s an excuse to ignore the growing crisis for those artists, especially musicians, who cannot work in isolation, who need an audience, a place to perform. If there is work, most have to cover their own living and travel expenses. Ingenuity wears thin when your savings are spent and the outlook is bleak. The government has fallen silent. Creativity certainly hasn’t been the byword at our biggest performing venues. Whatever their promises for later in the season, they remain all but inactive, some under threat of permanent closure – even the Royal Albert Hall.
For this reason, the events under review here, presented by smaller, more flexible organisations, are vital and should never be taken for granted. Last weekend, Grange Park Opera staged the world premiere of an opera commissioned and written in lockdown: a feat that will enter the annals of this pandemic. The enterprise gave paid work to 20 people: a dozen singers, a conductor (Toby Purser) and a small stage crew. With music by Alex Woolf to a libretto by David Pountney, A Feast in the Time of Plague is based on one of Pushkin’s “little tragedies”. Twelve archetypes – from cook to policeman to dewy newlyweds – gather for a last supper, each offering their own thoughts on risk, life and death. “I went where it was forbidden and lay down with the damned and drank with the gasping and smoked with the terminal and survived,” sings Antoine, the biker playboy, biked (on his own vehicle) and played by Simon Keenlyside, in magnificent voice and done away with far too soon. Continue reading...
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