Classical and Jazz: Latest News>July 22
Published: 22 July 2010
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
MODERN music enthusiasts need look no further than the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House over the next few days, where two modern classics are being performed on Friday, Saturday and Monday.
The extraordinary Recital 1 (for Cathy) stage work put together in the early 1970s by Italian composer Luciano Berio is being coupled with a revival of Into the Little Hill by leading English composer George Benjamin premiered last year.
Rarely performed, Recital 1 is a veritable tour de force. A singer enters the stage to start her recital, only to find her piano accompanist hasn’t arrived. Accompanied by an
off-stage harpsichord, she starts her recital with three Monteverdi pieces before stopping to look for the pianist.
Thereon she launches into a long spoken monologue interrupted by more than 40, often brief musical fragments taken from works of numerous composers. Slowly, her descent into madness is emphasised by quotations from Hamlet, Pierrot Lunaire and the mad scenes from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.
She ends the piece with a prayer for liberation, her voice range reduced to a semitone.
Mezzo Susan Bickley is taking on the Berio role at the Linbury. For the second work, Into the Little Hill, she’s being joined by Hampstead soprano Claire Booth. In George Benjamin’s piece, first performed in 2007, the two singers act out a disturbing interpretation of the medieval tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
This weekend’s performance at the Linbury revives a production put on early last year which received rave notices, some terming the piece a modern masterpiece.