Weather Afternoon: 10°c Sunny spells Tonight: 4°c Partly Cloudy Night

Music

London,

One Evening


Rating: 3 out of 5 Barry Millington's rating
Rating: 3 out of 5

Reader rating

Your rating

one star two star three star four star five star

Click on a star to rate

Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre
SE1

Chill winds and prose in Katie Mitchell's One Evening

Mark Padmore
Mark Padmore: sings the songs in an admirable translation

By Barry Millington
4 Jun 2009


Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise has, in recent years, been done on film, with dancer, with puppets, probably on ice.

Now it has had the Katie Mitchell treatment, in a presentation called One Evening, with tenor Mark Padmore, speaker Stephen Dillane and pianist Andrew West.         

A few weeks ago the National Theatre director gave us her take on Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, cross-cutting with three contemporary narratives and a barrage of sound effects produced in front of the audience’s eyes.         

The result with Dido was too much information. In One Evening, Mitchell perversely jettisons the narratives (which genuinely enhanced the Dido story), leaving just the sound effects. Thus Padmore and Dillane stand behind a long table, closely miked, scrunching leather, shaking branches and turning wind machines to create a soundtrack for the song cycle.         

A constant leitmotif is the trudge through snow. In the Serenade we have birds warbling and undergrowth rustling before icy winds obtrude. Elsewhere, a tongueless bell stroked by a violin bow suggests a glint of sunlight hitting the snow. For a real (cracked) bell, a beer can is struck.

For the audience it’s like watching an Archers recording session: fascinating, mesmerising, a virtuoso performance by all three. But does it enhance our understanding of the cycle? Perhaps a virtue is that it forces us to imagine our own visual narrative.

There’s another element, however: Dillane intersperses poems and prose by Samuel Beckett, entirely apposite and an illuminating commentary on the Schubert. Moreover, Padmore sings the songs in an admirable translation by Michael Symmons. Why don’t more singers do this? We hung on every word, not needing to scan programmes or surtitles.         

But closely miked himself, Padmore sang with a far more restricted tonal palette than usual, while West’s accompaniment — sensitively played on an upright piano — was insufficiently audible. Indeed, the whole musical experience was altogether too peripheral.         

To appreciate this presentation you have to accept that the music is just one element of a reflection on, or deconstruction of, the cycle. It’s not essentially a performance of Schubert’s Winterreise. But then, to be fair, it’s not billed as such.

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

Reader views (1)

 Add your view

Don't miss Katie Mitchell directing a new production of Parthenogensis in the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House. The astonishing story of a German woman shocked during a wartime bombing raid in 1944 into conceiving a child without a father was the intriguing starting point for Parthenogenesis – its title describes the creation of a child solely with the genetic material of its mother.

- Roh, London, 04/06/2009 15:15
Report abuse


Add your comment

 

Terms and conditions Make text area bigger You have  characters left.

We welcome your opinions. This is a public forum. Libellous and abusive comments are not allowed. Please read our House Rules.

For information about privacy and cookies please read our Privacy Policy.


 

Music top five
Cher Lloyd
Cher Lloyd

IndigO2
SE10
Apr 8, 7pm

Chris Rea

HMV Apollo
W6
Apr 5, 6.30pm

Miles Kane

HMV Forum
NW5
Apr 28, 7.30pm

Example

The O2 Arena
SE10
Apr 27, 6.30pm

Lightning Seeds

02 Shepherd's Bush Empire
W12
Feb 18, 7pm