A humanoid figure with a donkey’s head lies on a hospital bed in a small, clean room. A book of Shakespeare sonnets lies on his chest. As the dawn rises, we see this elderly man’s day begin: nurses and doctors come to check on him, offering food and assessing his condition. Family members visit, bringing good news. And he drifts between his present situation and dreamlike memories of past love.
English Touring Opera’s new mini-opera springs from a collaboration between director Valentina Ceschi and conductor Erika Gundesen. Also crucial is the contribution of designer Lily Arnold and puppetry design by Matt Hutchinson, as at the beginning of the piece, the Bottom-like donkey’s head is removed to reveal a grey-skinned, life-sized puppet of an old man, which the cast of four animates as his day unfolds around him.
This is the structure on which the performance hangs its well-chosen selection of twenty musical pieces, all inspired by Shakespeare and drawn from a range of eras. So daybreak is accompanied by Henry Bishop’s “Lo! Here the Gentle Lark” (drawn from Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis), Alys Mererid Roberts’s assured soprano an early highlight of the piece. When the man’s family visit to share news of their new arrival, “Who is Sylvia?” (Schubert, setting a piece from Two Gentlemen of Verona) accompanies the touching moment of a meeting of generations: the old man with the newborn baby.
At barely over an hour, and taking up minimal space and cast requirements, this is a piece designed for touring modestly to studio venues. But it has been assembled with care and affection. Ceschi’s inventive direction and striking imagery (a feature of her work since she co-devised and performed in shows at the Edinburgh Fringe as part of the brilliant company Dancing Brick) offers a throughline to lace together these disparate pieces and styles.
Gundesen leads a tiny musical ensemble—an unfortunately uncredited trio (plus Gundesen on piano)—who play with wit and lightness throughout. Gundesen is particularly impressive, giving a speedy and nimble rendition of the aforementioned “Who is Sylvia?”, for instance.
The cast, the aforementioned Roberts, mezzo Emily Hodkinson, tenor Tamsanqa Tylor Lamani and baritone Samuel Pantcheff, move smoothly from moment to moment and style to style, manipulating the puppet and various other design elements seamlessly.
Somewhere between a concert performance and a newly staged story, this is a curio but a splendid one: a delightful and at times touching way to encounter a range of music inspired by the bard and encompassing life’s highs, lows, loves and losses.
Reviewer: Mark Love-Smith