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REVIEW: BREMF: GAIA – Three Intermedi for a Living Planet

November 15, 2016

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BREMF – GAIA – Three Intermedi for a Living Planet

In a run of concerts that have just continued to impress there’s bound to be one trip up and the one I thought would be the most splendid – disappointed.  It was an evening of hubris.

The music was superb, opening with tremendous aplomb with Josquin des Prez’s Qui habitat. Astonishing opening,  lifting, soaring purity of voice rising into the high ethereal vaults of this highest of parish churches, the programme of music was  ambitious in scope and well thought out and balanced and the combination of choir, singers and orchestras matched the huge space well, taking the sound and giving it the majesty and volume that St Bartholomew demands. It’s an utterly unforgiving venue but the music over powered it, subsumed it and allowed its unconventional auditory characteristics to flow and ripple the music around. What a way to start, and I wish the afternoon had continued in such tremendous vein.

The supporting ‘intermedi’ were completely overshadowed by a combination of bad technical problems and ill thought out production.  The music in an intermedi is supposed to reflect the drama, but this felt the other way around, the drama, film snippets and dance/drama added on. The films accompanying the music were far too small for the space and the thought behind them (although their content often rose about these limitations for a short while). A small hovering rectangle projected onto a screen five times as large, both backdrop and screen it functioned as nether, the dancing was very difficult to follow and even see and the projections had failed by then leaving two baleful white bulbs burning out from behind the backdrop, like a malevolent pair of eyes of the goddess of Rhamnous on the altar distracting from the choreography and unfolding dramas. I’m sure on a HD widescreen laptop the whole thing had looked and sounded superb – as did the trailer- , but it failed to impress in St Barts vast belly.  I’d been at the ENO the week before where the huge stage projections were used with simplicity and brilliance, these projectors were too small, too domestic for St Bartholomew’s cavernous space. The bar has been set pretty high for this kind of staging and musical projections in the city.

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It’s unfortunate that a production that is so heavily reliant on it’s  ‘special effects’, dramatics and stage craft was let down so badly by them and although we were told it was a ‘massive viral infection’ that had caused the problem I was sitting pretty close to the tech desk and could see the mounting panic and frustration as it became clear that the failing tech was not going to play ball. Drives were swapped, plugs pulled, wires crossed, uncrossed and silent prayers and curses passed from the lips of the technicians, it’s micro drama was a curious contrast to the ethereal music and for a (short) while I enjoyed the clashing dichotomy.

See full details of the event here

The music and singing continued to impress but the relentless white projection light and scrabbling, beeping and movement of wires and bodies alongside our seats made a staging failure an overall distracting unpleasantness.

We left at the first interval along with a fair few people sitting around us.

I was informed that the second performance later than night was a huge improvement, but perhaps a little longer on technical rehearsals would have cleared up these glitches before the event itself.

St Bartholomew’s Church

12 November 2017

BREMF Consort of Voices

Deborah Roberts director

Onde Sonore

Deborah Roberts soprano Christina Thaler soprano
Natasha Stone alto Matthew Pochin tenor
Dominic Bevan tenor Andrew Robinson bass

Lacock Scholars

Greg Skidmore director
BREMF Community Choir

Andrew Robinson director

The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble

Claire Williams organ

Harpsichord Aileen Henry

Harp Toby Carrchitarrone

Alison Kinder bass viol

 

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