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The joyful mysteries

London
St Johns, Smith Square
05/31/2001 -  

St John's, Smith Square
05/31/01

George Frideric Handel: Joshua

Nancy Argenta (soprano), Michael Chance (countertenor), James Gilchrist (tenor), David Wilson-Johnson (baritone)

Ivor Bolton (conductor)
English Voices, St James's Baroque Players

Wilton's Music Hall
05/29/01 and 1, 6, 8, 12, 14, 16, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30 June

Yiimimangaliso: the Mysteries

Hardick (Cain/Pilate), Hurt Haupt (Adam), Stephen Hicks (Abraham/Judas), Sandile Kamle (Herod/Peter), Reggi Kopi (Caiaphas), Pauline Malefane (Mrs Noah), Pumeza Matshikiza (Virgin Mary), Adries Mbali (Lucifer), Ruby Mthethwa (Mary Magdalene), Vumile Nomanyama (God/Jesus), Pauline du Plessis (Elizabeth) Sibsiso "Otto" Ziqubu (Noah/Annas)

Andiswa Kedama, Andile Kosi, Njabulo Madlala, Ayanda Mamve, Bongiwe Mapassa, Gracious Mbatha, Bongani Mbato, Sibulele Mjali, Cynthia Porota, Daniel Rademan, Zorro Sidloyi, Andre Strijdom, Minette du Toit, Andile Tshoni

Charles Hazlewood (conductor/music director), Mark Dornford-May (director)

Paul Robeson was aware of every word he sang. His version of "It ain't necessarily so" from Porgy and Bess casts doubt on "the things that the preacher is li'ble to teach yer", presumably because he knew better that to diss the bible, whereas those who preach it are fair game. But the things that ain't necessarily so include little David and Goliath and Pharoah's daughter finding Moses, stories that stand on their own as entertainment. Two widely contrasting, but integrally popular and entertaining, performances last week showed that you can't keep the good book down.

Ivor Bolton's performance of a Handel oratorio with the St James's Baroque Players is one of the many Handel fixtures of the summer festival season, as part of the Lufthansa Festival. Joshua is performed comparatively rarely these days (all of the festivals are poking around in corners for something different this year). The libretto is by Thomas Morrell, who later worked with Handel on the last two great oratorios Theodora and Jephtha. Joshua, written in the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellion, is verbally thin and dramatically inept by comparison with these, depending entirely for its substantial effect on musical set-pieces that at times seem to carry, at no expense, the weight of a ton of stage machinery and decoration.

There are the famous battles that make up the second act, triumphs undermined by cockups in military intelligence, when the walls of Jericho come tumbling down to a fanfare and the sun stands still on an A sustained across the orchestra (because, as the programme helpfully points out, bad light threatens to stop play). And these is also an unscriptural pastoral interlude in act one, where Othniel and Achsah court chastely in the decidedly English landscape of the promised land until Achsah decides it's time for a tweety song about the thrush and the linnet. The choruses are mainly straightforward hymns in praise of God, similar to those in Israel in Egypt, to which Joshua is a sequel.

The St James's Baroque Players and English Voices gave an agile performance. The brass (all "natural" instruments) sounded quite rude. This was probably authentic for some time in the bronze age, but a bit on the comic side for what were meant to be grand and glorious effects evoking national victory over tyrants. English Voices, although not nearly as polished as The Sixteen or Polyphony (their models and competitors) had plenty of strength in the massive chordal sections and fizzed where appropriate.

Nancy Argenta stepped in for Ruth Ziesak as Achsah, the girlie, and gave a nippy performance. Her voice isn't to everyone's taste, but she has considerable charm and certainly doesn't abuse the music. Michael Chance sounded rough at times, and his acting as Othniel (the juvenile lead) was all pose, but he too put over the music effectively. James Gilchrist as Joshua didn't have much to do except sing the notes, which he did very well, since Joshua is a content-free figurehead, like Judas Maccabeus. David Wilson-Johnson as Caleb, the old general and stern father of Achsah, gave the only fully dramatic performance. His last aria, looking forward to rest in old age in the promised land, was very moving.

Handel's scriptural oratorios were undoubtedly popular, though their nationalistic edge and ticket prices perhaps suggest that they didn't quite express the nobility of the proletariat as such. But with their visceral musical ensembles, confrontational action and visual evocations, they offered easy access to big ideas, some of them uplifting and religious. The medieval mystery plays did the same earlier in a civic context genuinely open to everybody, though already influenced by commerce in the participation of the craft guilds, and the English mysteries probably have something to do with Handel's English oratorios, via biblical scenes in masques and in the public theatre. The Royal Shakespeare Company's recent production showed that the mystery plays can still be produced to great effect. But the South African adaptation of the Chester mystery play, presented by Broomhill Opera at Wilton's Music Hall until the end of June, is perhaps closer to the spirit of Handel's oratorios in the way it evokes a wonderfully human response to God and to humanity with (almost) no equipment. In fact, it goes further than Handel and doesn't even use instruments. The cast create God in his glory, and the world up to the resurrection, with their voices and bodies, plus three poles, a folding fence (Noah's ark) and a couple of watering cans.

The Chester mystery play concentrates on the falls of Lucifer and Adam, on the covenant, and on death and resurrection of humanity and of God, using material from the bible, the apocrypha and the gospels. The bible stories are the creation, Adam and Eve, the flood and the sacrifice of Abraham. The gospel stories are the nativity (the best party in history), the entry into Jerusalem (ditto), the raising of Lazarus, the passion roughly following Matthew, and the resurrection. The English text is in direct but dignified verse, but there are well defined characters and comic interludes, for example, a nervous Noah and a bolshie Mrs Noah who won't get into the ark unless her Kaffeeklatsch can come too.

This production is performed by a South African cast recruited by open audition. Most of the cast are studying performing arts, and a few have professional experience. But this is as good a performance of the play as you could hope to see. The impact comes from the way evocative material of all kinds, humour and visual effects as well and music and dance, is seamlessly integrated into the text. God is raised on high using those three poles as the angels sing his praises, as awesome as anything the guilds (or Cameron Mackintosh) could come up with using the technology of the time. A camp angel pours the flood from a watering can, and when it ends, the cast sing "You are my sunshine", with God on percussion. Most wonderfully of all, Jesus, newly incarnated and played by Vumile Nomanyana, the actor who was previously dignified if slightly acerbic as God, learns to dance and play the whistle from his mother, working out how to keep his body in order and discovering that jeans work better than a sarong for a human. A cracking battle of good and bad music follows: Jesus plays a lyrical, modal tune on the whistle, and Peter and the ensemble take it up. But Lucifer (in red snakeskin) and his cronies interrupt with hooligan rhythms beaten out on small oil cans.

Both Herod and Annas and Caiaphas are central-casting African dictators, while Pilate is a colonial administrator in (apparently) British naval uniform. Jesus and the apostles wear denim and are perhaps itinerant workers. But the production doesn't try to update the action. Rather, as Handel did in his oratorios, it offers emotional effects in the most direct way possible, from and to people working together.


H.E. Elsom

 

 

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