Page 45 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

Faced with the complete loss of her company's 2020 season, Wasfi Kani of Grange Park Opera had a
Judy Garland moment, 'let's do the show right here!', and created an enterprising Found Season in
which performances were created in a socially distanced way, many from the empty Grange Park
Opera auditorium in Surrey. On Tuesday we caught up with the season with Dominick Argento's one-
act monodrama, Miss Havisham's Wedding Night (in fact there are three characters, but two are
silent!). Performed in a fully staged version by soprano Sarah Minns and pianist David Eaton.
Dominick Argento (1927-2019) composed Miss Havisham's Fire in 1979; a full length opera with 19
characters, it gave some back story to the character from Dickens' David Copperfield (note of trivia: in
Dickens it is clear that Miss Havisham is in her 30s, but 20th century interpretations have always
made her considerably older). The opera was not a great success and Argento boiled it down to the
one-act monodrama in 1981. It remains a curious piece, but Minns gave a terrific performance as the
disturbed spinster who constantly returns to the disastrous events of her wedding night.

On Wednesday there was more live music as the City Music Foundation (CMF) presented the first of
its series of recitals from the clock tower at St Pancras. The CMF mentors and coaches young artists,
creating performance opportunities for them with a series of recitals. With lockdown and the loss of
income, CMF has found its role changing as it seeks to support the young artists, both financially and
to provide alternative performance opportunities. This first recital featured mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts
Dean, guitarist Andrey Lebedev and accordion player Bartosz Glowacki in a delightful programme
which moved from Piazzolla, Fernando Sor and Garcia Lorca, through Bach and Monteverdi, to
Charles Trenet and Antônio Carlos Jobim. Please do support the CMF and its young artists if you can,
clock tower recitals are at 6pm on Wednesdays.

The Summer term is the time when many conservatoires put on their annual opera performances.
Determined not to miss the opportunity, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama turned to
technology when social distancing came into operation. The result was the double bill of
Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Respighi's La bella dormente nel bosco directed by Olivia Fuchs and
conducted by Dominic Wheeler. Amazingly both operas were created without anyone actually
meeting, everything was done remotely. Fuchs and Wheeler had trimmed the pieces slightly, and all
the performers recorded their performances at home, coached by Fuchs and Wheeler. The young
students of the more technical departments of the Guildhall School used technology to create a 3-D
visualisation of what the production would have looked like. The resulting videos present the view with
a choice, either a collage of the filmed performances and the 3-D visualisation, or pure filmed
performance. We saw both for the Purcell and, as I did not know the Respighi, opted for the collaged
version to get a better feel for the staging.

The result was remarkable and it is a testament to the skills of the performers and the production
team that they created performances which held one's attention. Initially, given the range of new skills
to be learned, the intention had been to release excerpts but it was decided to release the whole,
rough edges and all. In fact, any rough edges simply created a new sense of performance. In Dido
and Aeneas we had two Didos, Elsa Roux Chamoux and Ema Nikolovska, with Tom Mole as Aeneas,
Lara Marie Muller as Belinda and Collin Shay and Nils Wandrer as the Sorceress. Credit to them all
for such a riveting and powerful result. The Respighi was intriguing and charming, with some lovely,
lovely music and I certainly want to encounter it in the theatre. The double bill is available on-line until
1 July, see the Guildhall School's website.