Page 103 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

stand in the way of young lovers, feels gritty and highly relevant to the

world around us.
Set in the South Bronx in the 1970s, the piece focuses on an elderly
Carmelite nun, Sister Edgar, who remembers when things were much
simpler. There was a time when eating fish on a Friday and saying mass in

Latin seemed to be enough to prevent awful things such as subway fires
from happening, but that is no longer the case. Nevertheless, much as she
struggles to come to terms with the modern world, she does not shy away
from it. On the contrary, she regularly ventures into The Bird, a place of

poverty and urban decay, to help its inhabitants, and we see her feeding
people and teaching a pregnant woman how to baptise her as yet unborn
baby. When a twelve-year old child named Esmeralda is reported missing,
both she and her companion Sister Grace try, but fail, to catch up with her.

The next thing we know, the news of the girl’s rape and death has been

scrawled on a brick wall, with both sisters expressing remorse at having
never been able to reach her. Following this, she is apparently sighted in
death, with this leading everyone to believe she is an angel. Whether she
really does have an angelic afterlife, or is in any sense still alive, hardly

matters as the point is that she brings hope to people.

The strict story is really only half of the opera, which focuses both on Sister
Edgar’s struggles to reconcile her faith with harsh realities, and on the
culture of The Bird itself. While poverty is rife, a character called Ismael is
in his element as he is the leader of a graffiti crew there, while a spirituality

of its own arises out of the most tragic circumstances. Angels are painted on
a brick wall as a tribute to every child who has died, but even these
poignant memorials are turned into nothing more than a tourist attraction
when a Guide leads a party there on a tour entitled ‘South Bronx Surreal’.

The nuns are particularly put out by this, pointing out that London and
other major cities may be surreal, but The Bird is most definitely real.

Paterson’s score feels fresh, innovative and immensely skilful. The
orchestra, which is conducted by Dominic Wheeler, includes electric guitar,
keyboards and, considering its overall size, quite an abundance of brass. It

does not include any upper strings, but this in itself enables the electric
harp to shine. The music reveals a variety of influences, but feels far from
derivative because one is reminded of the themes that are prevalent in

other works so that we are not talking about strict musical imitations. For