Weather Tonight: -2°c Clear Night Morning: 3°c Mostly cloudy

Critics' Choice

Film

Andrew O'Hagan

quotePrecious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressingquote

Andrew O'Hagan Precious Theatre

Henry Hitchings

quoteIan McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignantquote

Henry Hitchings Waiting for Godot Theatre

Fiona Mountford

quoteSlight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding highquote

Fiona Mountford Enron

Reader reviews

Film

Simon, London

quoteUtterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treatquote

A Prophet Theatre

Ella, London

quoteThough 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hourquote

Trilogy Restaurants

Dave A, London

quoteWe went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiancequote

Mansons

Theatre & comedy reviews London,

ROH2: Parthenogenesis

Your rating
one startwo starthree starfour starfive star
Click on a star to rate
Covent Garden

Evening Standard rating Kieron Quirke's rating
Evening Standard rating Reader rating
 Add your review

Dir: James MacMillan (cond), Katie Mitchell (dir).
Cast: Stephan Loges, Amy Freston


Description: James MacMillan's opera is inspired by the tale of a WWII survivor who gives birth while still a virgin. Concert performance with Britten Sinfonia. Directed by Katie Mitchell.


 
Please wait the page is loading extra content
  • Show details
  • Hide details
  • Book Online

Virgin birth needs divine inspiration in Parthenogenesis

By Kieron Quirke, Evening Standard  12.06.09
 
Parthenogenesis

Hospital case: Sian Clifford as Nurse and Charlotte Roach as Anna

Other reviews

Look here too

It means virgin birth, don’t you know. Premiered in 2000, this relentlessly profound take on the Annunciation from James Macmillan with words by poet Michael Symmons Roberts now gets a Katie Mitchell production. Musically, it’s great but you can’t call it drama.

It’s based around a modern case of parthewotsit when a German mother’s near scrape with a bomb apparently made her fertilise herself. Roberts gives us the progeny, Anna, dying slowly in hospital 24 years later, imagining an angelic visit that might have proclaimed her birth.
The piece feels like an oratorio, with Anna’s portentous ramblings acting as recitative between sung episodes from Angel (Stephan Loges) and mother Kristel (Amy Freston). Macmillan’s music, provided by the Britten Sinfonia under the composer’s own baton, is all chaos intermingled with grace.

Shivering textures and drums that barrack away like panic or bombs give way to moments of serenity.

The Angel, in particular, is a confused figure — his graceful, noticeably consonant theme persistently undermined.

The standout section of the night is Freston’s second aria ­— a thrillingly sung, stutteringly set text that mixes libidinous frustration and terror.

What the words were, though, I barely guessed: opera vowels. The action doesn’t help — Vicki Mortimer’s set splits the two protagonists: they face us while theoretically responding to each other with unfathomable gestures.

Roberts provides a guide to how deep it all is in the programme. It’s clear that this is a piece where things are touched and ruminated upon rather than, well, happen. It should find its place in the concert hall.

Until 18 June. www.roh.org.uk.

More


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

 

Other reviews

[ 1 ] [ 2 ]

Reader reviews (1)

 Add your review

This is not an opera- perhaps an oratorio- with not enough interesting music or drama to keep the audience awake . mercifully there is only one act !

- K . Kalman, london


Add your comment

 

Your email address will not be published

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


 
 


 
 
London's Weather
Tonight
Clear Night
-2°c
Morning
Mostly cloudy
3°c
5 day forecast
 
 

Daily Mail Mail on Sunday Travel Mail This is Money Metro

Loot | Jobsite | Homes & Property | London jobs | Educate London | Holiday Villas