Page 492 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

fur-flying, and ending with ‘Lord Melbourne’, a cor anglais in the spotlight, hauntingly sad,
painfully climaxed. Brabbins led a zesty and sensitive rendition.

To a BrittenPears Arts/BBC co-commission, Gavin Higgins, http://www.gavinhiggins.com/,
has written a cantata, The Faerie Bride, to words by Francesca Simon, of Horrid Henry fame.
This Welsh lady-of-the-lake myth – one strand being accepting people for what they are –
was given a notable first performance, the music starting in the depths, not many fathoms
away from Das Rheingold, an ominous beginning, then soliloquys from the Man (on the
ground) and Woman (inhabiting the water), expressing their respective observations and
dispositions as well as narrating/taking-forward a story that will end forlornly: Man loses
Woman to the Sea, for ever, he having broken/misunderstood her guidelines: three strikes
(not necessarily physical) and you’re out. Higgins’s setting is mystical, animated and subtly
detailed, dramatically intense without being overt, underscoring the characters and
storyline – exemplary diction from the singers – with little in the way of emotional upsurges
yet with a capacity to engage the senses, paint pictures, reveal finer feelings, and compel
attention for close on fifty minutes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00182ct
https://brittenpearsarts.org/whats-on/category/aldeburgh-festival