Page 508 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

19 June 2022

Classical music
Aldeburgh festival review – Gavin

Higgins’ Faerie Bride brings otherworldly

aura to Aldeburgh

Snape Maltings, Suffolk
Based on the Lady of the Lake, Higgins’ new cantata was lyrical and highly atmospheric, while
Graham Fitkin’s works for two pianos were scintillatingly energetic

Highly assured … Marta Fontanals-Simmons and Roderick Williams with the BBC NOW conducted by
Martyn Brabbins, performing Gavin Higgins’ The Faerie Bride at Aldeburgh festival. Photograph: Britten
Pears Arts
Rian Evans

Tales of mortals who marry fairies don’t generally end well but have often made for spellbinding
narratives. The ancient Welsh legend of the Lady of the Lake, recorded in the 14th-century
manuscript Llyfr Coch Hergest, provided the inspiration for The Faerie Bride by composer Gavin
Higgins and librettist Francesca Simon. Acclaimed for their first collaboration, The Monstrous
Child, this new work is styled a cantata, using just two singers with full orchestra, a reflection of
Higgins’s role as composer-in-association with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales who
premiered it at the Aldeburgh festival.