King Priam
In a bold move, that may not have pleased the mass audience, the Brighton Festival programmed a massive concert performance of Sir Michael Tippett’s opera King Priam. Perhaps not the crowd pleasing last night concert of old, for those of us who are excited by this this was a massively exciting event and the Britten Sinfonia and Brighton Festival chorus with a host of soloists certainly delivered an evening to remember. It was not however without fault, The off stage choirs was oddly amplified at points, the tenor voices at times hard to hear above the thunder of kettle drums, and Helen of Troy was wearing a particularly loud pair of shoes. In fact the constant drifting on and off stage of orchestral players, chorus and soloists was somewhat distracting, and caused a misunderstanding when the audience went to take an interval too early. Despite all this it was a wonderful evening and particular mention should be given to Jane Irwin as Andromache, Alan Oke as Achilles, Benjamin Hullet as Hermes and treble Thomas Fetherstonehaugh whose fine voice sang out in a hall filled with immense sounds.
Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, 27 May 2012
[Rating:4.5/5]
Andrew Kay
The fine voices of the Brighton Festival Chorus and Alan Oke were very badly served by the poor amplification for Achilles’ dreadful war cry. As a hoard of fighting warriors they sounded washed out and unmusical. Perhaps they would have been better in the side balconies. Also, the bass soloists sounded much better from upstairs than in the stalls. This work seems to need an orchestra pit to allow an all-round balance of sound.
However, The guitar amplification worked very well and what a fantastic orchestra and selection of singers! Bravo for staging this masterpiece at all and so well.