The opening presentation in this year’s Grimeborn Opera Festival at Dalston’s Arcola Theatre is a double-bill of short chamber pieces, Keynote Opera’s After My Breath and William Gardner Productions’ Eden 2.0.
After My Breath, composed by Lisa Logan, is subtitled “a love letter to Greta Thunberg”. In Logan’s environmentally astute libretto, Greta – given a beautiful and dynamic voice by solo coloratura soprano Emily Thorner – is first revealed to us as a young girl whose mother’s voice teaches her about life, breath and music.
Across six scenes we follow the development of Greta’s activism, and the burdens she takes on as she tackles authority and public opinion and seeks to protect the air, trees, land, sea and climate. Always there remains the sense of this woman as someone who seems small and insignificant, but endures in her quest to have an impact on the world.
Director Marina Caldarone with designer Tiffany Fraser Steele have envisaged visuals that identify the image of Greta Thunberg. The yellow raincoat. The working overalls. The raft. The hair fixed in a plait. The gestures. Conductor Beth Fitzpatrick keeps the 14-piece orchestra of strings, woodwind, percussion and piano from overwhelming Thorner’s voice, but there are moments where the actions could be met by a louder vocal performance.
After My Breath is clear about its focus on the environment, life, breath, the need to protect the soil and the crops, and resistance to change that will affect the planet long-term. It isn’t always clear where we are in Greta’s life – the scene notes in the digital programme tell us that one scene takes place at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, but I didn’t immediately grasp that.
This is a remarkable 30-minute opera that repays close study; it helps if you know who Greta Thunberg is and what she stands for, but it remains a strong piece without that knowledge.
3 stars for this one.
The second opera was Eden 2.0., composed and conducted by William Gardner, with a witty libretto by Alexia Peniguel. It follows an experiment set in a prototype of the Garden of Eden, but including office supplies, books, and executive toys alongside the plants and apples.
Two Gods seek a philosopher, an industrialist, and a government minister to work on how to make the world better, with access to all the knowledge from a world which is presumably on its knees. Director Eleanor Burke and set/costume designer Emily Cave have crafted a space, including the balcony in this studio, that offers space and intrigue,
It’s a reboot, but one which may not have the good intentions you may expect. The two Gods (countertenors Richard Decker and Nathan Mercieca), recruit their idealists from different eras – the philosopher (soprano Emma Warner) from pre-Christian times, the industrialist (baritone Michael Temporal-Darell) from the 19th century, and the politician (tenor Brenton Spiteri) from the post-climate change future.
The 11-piece orchestra tackles the rich and intensive score, while all the superb singers add value to their roles, offering a heightened agency to their impossible task. Spiteri even rips an apple apart with his bare hands, while Decker and Mercieca quickly become jaded by the process of their chosen trio. For them, a world which will work and thrive is really not the main goal.
At 40 minutes, Eden 2.0. offers a satirical swipe at how humanity has dealt with industrial and technological progress while letting the environment collapse. It ends on a more positive note about clear air and being able to touch snow, but it makes it clear it may be too late for our current world to go back to this quality of life.
4 stars for this.
This was a vibrant and challenging double-bill. Both operas refused to make the subject of how we, as humans, have taken our ability to reason and communicate to make the world much worse, sugar-coated in any way.
After My Breath and Eden 2.0. were teamed as the opening show in this year’s Grimeborn Opera Festival, which “continues to rip up the rulebook and create something radically new.“
Grimeborn continues to the 5 Sep, and is now celebrating its 19th year.
Photo credit: Marshall Stay