Riveting (1)

The weather was just what one would have wished for. There were 12 in the party. The table had been set in the middle of the lawn. All around were other tables, other dinner-suited and -dressed opera-goers. Beyond the ha-ha were the sheep, and the Downs stretched beyond the sheep. The whole setting was, in this writer's view, what people understand by 'Glyndebourne'.

Yet the dominant memory is of the production, the riveting quality of the production. The Passion is something to listen to. The music, the soloists, and the chorus - they are in direct contact with the individual members of the audience. Now the relationship was different. Instead of the two members of the relationship, there were three. The text of the Passion was now the narrative of an opera. The Evangelist sang not to the audience but to the group on the stage who were taking the part of parents who were suffering the deaths of their children. The Evangelist, and others, were now singing directly to that group and we were listening.

And how closely we listened and how closely we watched. The text delivered the story of that famous trial which led to the conviction of the Innocent, to the sentence of death, and to his journey to Calvery and to death. The presentation, remember, was to the group (the bereaved parents) on stage. The Evangelist (who stands for all soloists) at times was amongst the group. I followed the story, I followed the drama, in the same way and to the same effect as I have watched other operatic dramas. I was gripped. So too, it emerged at the table in the middle of the lawn, had been others.

One of the table-group, at Glyndebourne for the first time in some 20 years, associated opera with spectacle. Yet he too acknowledged the power of the drama, of the opera, even though the costumes were grey. Whilst there was no spectacle that the camera would capture, there was no loss of power. That familiar narrative was sung to parents who were in pain. Pain was put to pain. And we, in the auditorium, were privy to the exchange and, with the actors, felt the pain.

Riveting.

Don