Interred.
Dominique Le Gendre: The Burial at Thebes, Oxford Playhouse, 19 October 2008
The Burial at Thebes was billed as ‘an opera in 1 act. Libretto: Shamus Heaney, Music Dominique Le Gendre’ – in that order. The libretto follows closely the text of Heaney’s version of Sophocles’ Antigone, set to music by the composer though key passages are, for dramatic effect, spoken. In the interval the main point of discussion was whether this musical work merited consideration as an opera or not. Taking a slightly cynical view that this depends on the extent to which the emotive power of the music compensates for the lack of audibility of the words the test is failed. From an operatic point of view the music came over as second rate minimalism. Described as ‘rapso’, a combination of Trinidadian rap and calypso, it was performed on orchestral instruments by the Manning Camerata Chamber Orchestra conducted by Peter Manning; the use of indigenous instruments might have produced a livelier sound.
Having said that, the performance was not entirely without dramatic merit – how could it be, being based on Heaney’s vivid translation of Sophocles which was first given to mark the centenary of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 2004? The opening was promising; the duet between Antigone (Edit Arit) and Ismene (Andrea Baker) met the criterion for opera, above – the words were inapprehensible – but this was the musical high-point. Creon (Brian Green) was cast as a modern despot; the Chorus was replaced by a quartet of Cabinet Ministers, dressed in d’Oyly Carte costumes. Again we had to strain to catch enough of the words to follow the argument and the action. This is inexcusable in this type of narrative-based work for which I have coined the name ‘operlet’. Composer, director (Derek Walcott) and performers should ensure that projection of the text is the overriding essential. The perfect clarity of Haemon (Andy Morton), Tiresias (Martin Nelson) and Euridyce (Marion Williams) indicate that in this case it was not entirely the composer’s fault. Of the two purely spoken parts, the Guard (John Joyce) and Messenger (John Van der Post), the former delivered to Creon, with appropriate gallows humour, the news of Antigone’s defiance in interring her brother in the star performance of the evening. A body-stocking clad dancer (Gregoire A Mayer), representing ‘The Spirit of the City’, cavorted across the stage from time to time, ending the show in the utmost banality wearing a feather head-dress.
The truth of the matter is that Sophocles, unlike Euripides, does not lend himself to operatic treatment, being too much concerned with moral ideas and argument. Baroque composers understood this – there are few settings which survive. Antigone has one common dictionary listing, by Traetta (1772), though there are several from the twentieth century, including Honneger (1927) with libretto by Jean Cocteau and Orff (1949) based on Hölderlin’s translation. It is difficult to convey in music the conflict between laws of the state and of humanity and the consequences of not tempering justice with pragmatism, even more so if one cannot hear the words. This attempt was not a success.
Dominique Le Gendre: The Burial at Thebes, Oxford Playhouse, 19 October 2008
The Burial at Thebes was billed as ‘an opera in 1 act. Libretto: Shamus Heaney, Music Dominique Le Gendre’ – in that order. The libretto follows closely the text of Heaney’s version of Sophocles’ Antigone, set to music by the composer though key passages are, for dramatic effect, spoken. In the interval the main point of discussion was whether this musical work merited consideration as an opera or not. Taking a slightly cynical view that this depends on the extent to which the emotive power of the music compensates for the lack of audibility of the words the test is failed. From an operatic point of view the music came over as second rate minimalism. Described as ‘rapso’, a combination of Trinidadian rap and calypso, it was performed on orchestral instruments by the Manning Camerata Chamber Orchestra conducted by Peter Manning; the use of indigenous instruments might have produced a livelier sound.
Having said that, the performance was not entirely without dramatic merit – how could it be, being based on Heaney’s vivid translation of Sophocles which was first given to mark the centenary of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 2004? The opening was promising; the duet between Antigone (Edit Arit) and Ismene (Andrea Baker) met the criterion for opera, above – the words were inapprehensible – but this was the musical high-point. Creon (Brian Green) was cast as a modern despot; the Chorus was replaced by a quartet of Cabinet Ministers, dressed in d’Oyly Carte costumes. Again we had to strain to catch enough of the words to follow the argument and the action. This is inexcusable in this type of narrative-based work for which I have coined the name ‘operlet’. Composer, director (Derek Walcott) and performers should ensure that projection of the text is the overriding essential. The perfect clarity of Haemon (Andy Morton), Tiresias (Martin Nelson) and Euridyce (Marion Williams) indicate that in this case it was not entirely the composer’s fault. Of the two purely spoken parts, the Guard (John Joyce) and Messenger (John Van der Post), the former delivered to Creon, with appropriate gallows humour, the news of Antigone’s defiance in interring her brother in the star performance of the evening. A body-stocking clad dancer (Gregoire A Mayer), representing ‘The Spirit of the City’, cavorted across the stage from time to time, ending the show in the utmost banality wearing a feather head-dress.
The truth of the matter is that Sophocles, unlike Euripides, does not lend himself to operatic treatment, being too much concerned with moral ideas and argument. Baroque composers understood this – there are few settings which survive. Antigone has one common dictionary listing, by Traetta (1772), though there are several from the twentieth century, including Honneger (1927) with libretto by Jean Cocteau and Orff (1949) based on Hölderlin’s translation. It is difficult to convey in music the conflict between laws of the state and of humanity and the consequences of not tempering justice with pragmatism, even more so if one cannot hear the words. This attempt was not a success.