SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Michael Berkeley, For You:  Music Theatre Wales, Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, 11.11.08 (RJ)

Michael Berkeley's new opera For You has been awaited with great interest, not least because it is a collaboration with the novelist Ian McEwan.  Berkeley's previous operas have been based on literary works from the past - Kipling's Baa Baa Black Sheep and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre - both with librettos by David Malouf. This one, however, is set firmly in the 21st century.

Both men were keen to make this opera a modern, realistic work. Initially they thought of adapting either Soderberg's story Dr Glas or Zweig's Leporella, each of which explores sexual obsession. Eventually McEwan decided to write an original libretto based on this idea featuring a composer.

Michael Berkeley at 60 (the same age as McEwan) possesses none of the traits of McEwan's creation, the philandering composer Charles Frieth, who was portrayed with relish and conviction by Alan Opie, I am happy to say.  The opera opens with Frieth conducting a rehearsal of one of his early compositions. However, he becomes frustrated because the music fails to move him and vents his wrath on the horn player (female) whom he accuses of playing a wrong note.

Robin, his long suffering amanuensis, sung by Christopher Lemmings, cynically predicts what will happen next: after humiliating the woman, he will forgive her and then seduce her. The sequence goes according to plan:  Frieth and the horn player end up in bed together and he promises to add a 32 bar horn solo for her in his latest opus. The first act ends in uproar as they are discovered in flagrante delicto.

Frieth's ailing wife Antonia, sung by Helen Williams, is aware of her husband's misdemeanours, and that he is not referring to his musical scores when he plans to bring work in progress  home. Her marriage may be loveless, but she has an admirer in Simon, her doctor (Jeremy Huw Williams) - whose interest in her goes well beyond the realms of professional duty. Yet as he sits by her hospital bed Frieth has feelings of remorse and he declares his love for her.

This may sound pretty conventional, but it is the sixth character who gives this music drama its edge. Domestics are usually accorded minor roles, unless they happen to be Jeeves or Figaro's Susannah. But Frieth's Polish housekeeper, Maria,  is no retiring creature; she emerges from obscurity to drive the plot forward and ultimately dominates the action.

If this were a comedy Maria would be one of the comic leads - a foreigner whose understanding of English and English mores is sadly deficient. In this drama, however, she quickly develops into a creepy, disturbing presence. (One of my companions compared her to Mrs Danvers in Rebecca.) She despises Antonia and Simon and has an overwhelming crush on her boss, which leads her to draw all the wrong conclusions. When Frieth confides in her that his affair with the horn player will be his last, she assumes that he is clearing the decks for her. When he asks her in a world-weary manner if she has ever contemplated marriage, she is convinced he is about to propose to her. Then her obsession really takes over and the action plays out like a Greek tragedy.

Alison Cook kept everyone on the edge of their seats with her powerful performance as Maria. Just as Charles Frieth is tasting success with his new masterpiece Demonic Aubade her monstrous action deals him a fateful blow and he finds himself unable to escape her clutches.

I think this was the only time that I felt a thread of sympathy for Charles. Indeed, I felt little sympathy for any of the characters in this opera, apart from Robin who was very badly put upon and clearly in the wrong job. I wondered if this was the intention. Only on occasions did the music reflect the gentler side to their natures - as when Maria thinks of Poland and Antonia recalls her early love for Charles while he listens in the shadows.

The libretto is direct and often witty and on the whole the Berkeley-McEwen collaboration works well. Each act builds up to a climax in the form of an animated vocal sextet, though the final sextet would have benefited by being shorter. I cannot fault the splendid acting and diction of any of the performers, and the fourteen piece band played clearly and supportively under Michael Rafferty's precise direction.

The first four performances (directed by Michael McCarthy) were at the Linbury Theatre, and this, the fifth, was the Welsh premiere. We shall have to wait until next summer for the next performances at Mold, Brecon, Birmingham and Oxford (See www.musictheatrewalesorg.uk.), but for anyone who has yet to see it, it is worth the wait.

Roger Jones