UPRISING
Over many years I have been lucky enough to go to Glyndebourne, the opera house that nestles in the Sussex countryside but carries a global reputation for both excellence and innovation. And amongst the spectacular productions that I have witnessed some of the most special have been the productions that come from the Glyndebourne Youth Opera and Glyndebourne Community Opera, works like Imago and Nothing and so many more.
For many it is the festival season, picnics and posh frocks that hold the greatest appeal. But if you want to see this company at its most exciting then look out for these productions where you will discover new writing and burgeoning young talent. The Community Opera offers older singers the opportunity to unleash their voices and enjoy the experience of performing on one of the premier platforms in the industry. For those kids who join the Youth Opera this can be the first foot on a career path that might just take them onto a world of professional opera and theatre. And when you see them in action you can immediately spot just how much talent there is.
© Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
Last night I saw that talent in a new work written by composer Jonathan Dove and librettist April de Angelis. Uprising is a timely work that highlights the emergence of a passionate movement of young people who are alarmed by the increasing issue of climate change. It pays homage to a global list of named young men and women, some very young, and all activists in their own way.
In Uprising the central character is Lola Green who takes a radical stand, refuses to go to school, to eat meat or fish or dairy and implores her sister, father and mother to step away from the trappings of modern consumerism.
© Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
Of course she is taunted and ridiculed by her family and by her school friends. I say friends but actually she is portrayed as having no friends, no allies in her plight at the start. This fact in the whole actually reveals two facts, not all teenagers are angry about and active in fighting for change and, not all older generations have been complacent.
It takes some time for Lola to attract support, and it is an element that is hardly explored. There are glimmers of sympathy from her father and eventually from her sister but her mother is hiding a dark secret.
© Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
Act one is very much a literal depiction of her fight to get people to listen. Act two takes a much more rapid turn and is, in turn, far more engaging. From the bland domestic and school environments we are suddenly in a magical woodland where the vast chorus become the flora and fauna. It is so beautifully realised in Ana Inés Jabares-Pita’s stunning yet sparse design, Mike Ashcroft’s movement and Sinead O’Neill’s direction and all lit with reserve by Danny Vavrečka, I always enjoy seeing a lighting design that is not afraid of the dark!
Musically Dove has created a score that is demanding of both soloists and chorus. It is filled with drama but also has moments of lightness and the occasional moments of humour, much needed in such a dark tale. I particularly loved the huge choral passage when the company take on the elements of the endangered forest and sing the Latin names of the trees before Quercus appears as the forest king. Reality has become mythology to great effect. April de Angelis’s libretto shifts from vernacular to fantastic with ease and the setting from stark to magical with equal effectiveness.
© Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
Both the youth and community cast are stunning, some of each given striking solo moments, but it is their united power in both voice and performance that truly impresses. And of course we have some excellent professionals too. On this occasion Natasha Agarwal performing the role of Zoe Green, Madeleine Shaw as the mother Angela Green, Ross Ramgobin as the father Clive Green and Rhys Batt as the doctor, a very dark element of the plot where Lola is threatened with electro shock therapy to calm her “difficult” behaviour.
Edwin Kaye is marvellous as both the flawed mayor and his beautiful bass voice chillingly perfect as Quercus the forest king.
Ffion Edwards © Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
At the heart of the whole is of course Lola Green in a role that is so very demanding. Her constant anger at what is happening around her means that almost every note is delivered with power, a demand that Ffion Edwards executes flawlessly. It’s a massive role that sees her on stage for nearly the whole time. An impassioned character, and a young character that she convincingly embodies, a teenager filled with anger and vision.
The whole works, maybe the story, and in particular the first part, is very familiar, and for some of us, the fact that a current younger generation has taken ownership of the fight against climate change, might hurt. In many ways we older generations have failed the future, not listened, not acted – so thank god the millennials have! And thank god that a company as forward thinking and eco-conscious as Glyndebourne which has an amazing attitude towards saving wherever possible, wind power, even the paper programme carries exemplary eco credentials, invests in new work of this calibre!
Andrew Kay
Glyndebourne
28 February
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