Returning for a second year to the Arcola Theatre in Dalston, Green Opera’s 555: Verlaine En Prison is this week’s show in the Grimeborn Festival.
Founded in 2007, Grimeborn is East London’s showcase of new and experimental works alongside radical productions of classic opera. It coincides with, and is a play on Glyndebourne, the ‘posh’ home of opera in East Sussex.
Paul Verlaine is often referred to as “the French version of Oscar Wilde”, and his letters, poems and associated material concerning his wife, Mathilde, and young lover Arthur Rimbaud, form the spoken and sung components of this show
555 refers to the days Verlaine was sentenced to prison for wounding Rimbaud. We start with the outcome of the trial, then wind back to four years earlier.
Co-written with director Eleanor Burke, this is a showcase for young Belgian countertenor Logan Lopez Gonzalez, who brings a sensitive understanding to the material while also handling the character’s inevitable breakdown.
Anna Sideris, in a variety of non-singing parts, including the two lovers of Verlaine’s life, is fiery and energetic, and her intimacy with Logan Lopez Gonzalez’s Verlaine is highly charged.
Poems and words are set to the music of various composers from Fauré to Hahn and Debussy. This gives a pleasing familiarity to the piece, although the English surtitles sometimes had gaps or oddities in the translation.
Verlaine’s tumultuous few years include addiction, lust, depression, the loss of an inheritance, and a lot of creativity. Unlike Wilde, his confinement in prison was fairly comfortable, with a decent governor and a place to write.
Pianist Stella Marie Lorenz offered an accompaniment that added its own narrative to the story we see. With no set, just a chair, a piano, and good use of the balcony, it is left to Cheng Keng’s lighting design to add atmosphere, and it does that beautifully.
At just an hour, this is a lovely capsule opera with excellent vocals. The idea of utilising the poet’s own words, a little self-indulgent and sentimental as they might me, fits with the approach.
Warmly received by tonight’s audience, 555: Verlaine En Prison is deeply poetic and sweetly passionate. You can see it all this week as part of Grimeborn 2024, which continues with two more productions until 28 Sep.
For more on Green Opera, visit their website..
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