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Jacqueline Dankworth and Cleveland Watkiss |
Slave who mastered music
BRIDGETOWER
LSO St Luke’s
THIS rich, eclectic mix of modern jazz, stylised operatic arias and pop ballads, all woven round a worthy and unique storyline, promises so much.
It tells the story of the son of a former black slave who became a violinist prodigy, plays for Beethoven, and dies in poverty in Peckham. And what a story it is!
Composer Julian Joseph and librettist Mike Phillips set about their job with polish and verve.
While the arias and recitatives of the main operatic parts are performed stylishly by Jonathan Peter Kenny and Buddog Verona James, Jacqueline Dankworth produces the best moments with a golden voice, silkily projecting hummable ballads.
A disappointment lies with Cleveland Watkiss who has the central role of the violinist George Bridgetower – his voice competing unsuccesesfuly at times with the 10-piece jazz orchestra.
The part of Bridgetower as a child was played with professional aplomb by 11-year-old Isaac Cobbinah, a Camden Town boy, on the night I saw the production. He alternates nightly with Jamal Hope.
It’s not often that I have left the auditorium in the interval humming the tune of a new production, but there I was captivated by a couple of songs by the talented Julian Joseph.
Yet, in some ways, the production went wrong, all the more so at the end when it limped to a finale.
This is an ambitious production. It represents the first modern opera encompassing the theme of black slavery. It rings with truisms, at times it tugs the heart.
It will go on tour in the autumn, starting with a showing at the Hackney Empire. This gives Joseph and Phillips the time to tighten up things.
But can something be done with the ending? In the last act it evokes the spirit of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the extraordinary slave rebel who drove the French out of Haiti at the end of the 18th century.
More of that spirit, please!
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