Classical Music Review: Curlew River | Hampstead and Highgate Festival | St Stephen's | Benjamin Britten | Michael Taylor

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The Review - CLASSICAL & JAZZ
Published: 30 April 2009

Britten sounds church’s return

PREVIEW: HAMPSTEAD AND HIGHGATE FESTIVAL
St Stephen's

A RARE performance of Benjamin Britten’s powerful Curlew River is to be the highlight of the Hampstead and Highgate Festival starting next Thursday.
The fully staged 75-minute opera will be performed on Sunday May 10 in St Stephen’s Church at the corner of Pond Street and Rosslyn Hill in Hampstead.
It will be the first public event in the church since the completion of £4.5million renovation works over the past 10 years by St Stephen’s Church Trust, the charity chaired by retired architect Michael Taylor.
Curlew River is an apt choice to provide the first opportunity for the acoustics in the church to show their mettle.
It ranks as one of Britten’s most astonishing works, marked by intense and hauntingly beautiful music. It is one of three Church Parables that Britten composed after a tour of the Far East in 1955 when he had his first experience of the austere, stylised ritual of Japanese Noh theatre.
The action takes place in medieval East Anglia and is given a Christian context through the use of plainchant to frame the action.
The story is told through four main characters who, in the style of Noh theatre, are all performed by male singers. A madwoman is looking for her lost son when, crossing a river by ferry, she is told he died several years ago.
On visiting his grave, she regains her sanity and her son sings to her from heaven.
“We are very fortunate to have assembled singers of international standing for the performance – Robert Murray, Andrew Slater and Lynton Black,” says George Vass, the opera’s music director and the festival’s artistic director.
“Curlew River has not been performed in London for a long time, too long in my view, and we hope the production will be a memorable experience.”
Performances are at 5.30pm and 8.30pm and tickets from £10.
• Other highlights:
Thursday May 7: Wihan Quartet at Hampstead Parish Church, Church Row, 7.45pm
Saturday May 9: Highgate Choral Society at St Michael’s, South Grove, Highgate, 7.30pm.
Wednesday May 13: Springfest Orchestra in the Festival Finale at Hampstead Parish Church, Church Row, 7.45pm.
Springfest box office: 0871 594 3123

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