Classical labels
are having to cast their nets ever wider in order to create
original ‘product’ in a market under increasing economic pressure.
That said, Deutsche Grammophon always did have unexpected and
exotic items in their catalogue. And to prove the point I still
have in my eclectic collection some weird and wonderful electronic
stuff by the young Stockhausen, Vangelis and a bunch of Balinese
gamelan players.
Welcome to the
Voice is, as described in Wikipedia: “a bilingual opera
(French and English) … A first draft was given a workshop performance at the Atlantic Bell Jazz
Festival in 2000. The performance cast was Elvis Costello, Ron
Sexsmith, John Flansburg and students of the Juilliard School
of Music. Musicians were Brodsky Quartet, Steve Nieve, and Ned
Rothenberg. Following this exploratory first attempt, “ Welcome
To The Voice” was expanded and in 2007 [this] studio recording
of the work, produced by Nieve/Teodori was released by Deutsch
Grammophon.”
Don’t
be frightened off by the French aspect, most of the singing
is in English, and the French texts sung by the ghosts of Carmen
and Butterfly are translated in the booklet, which gives the
entire libretto. Welcome To The Voice is a multifaceted
piece that employs voices from different musical worlds. It
thrives on the juxtaposition of men who have characterful voices
which come from jazz or rock with women who have been classically
trained.
Sting has appeared
on DG recently, singing songs by Dowland, an attempt which didn’t
go down too well with one
reviewer. I did a similar test to our very own Kirk McElhearn
and played some of this disc to my better half, but we didn’t
get very far. After some stolid silence the response was “I
can’t bear his wailing”, so we didn’t get much further. She’s
a Bon Jovi fan, so I’ve taken her off classical reviewing for
now.
I’m quite a fan
of Sting and have been for donkey’s years, and to me he sounds
quite at home in this role. The vocal writing is fairly undemanding,
but gives some space for ‘acting’ the part – the lines falling
short of being full-blown operatic arias, while at the same
time being more than a variant on recitative.
Elvis Costello is
another larger-than-life entertainer with a distinctive sound.
I feel his style fits more closely with the more punchy rhythms
and clever double-entendres of his own music, but his is a valid
contribution. He has of course worked with the Brodsky Quartet
before, on an album called ‘The Juliet Letters’ among other things.
I’m less familiar with Robert Wyatt’s work. His is the straightest
sound, with a direct, almost naïvely undemonstrative quality,
providing a good counterfoil to the grandeur of Sting and the
gravelly heft of Costello. While I allow plenty of room for suspension
of disbelief, a rough tough iron foundry worker he is not. The
ladies are of course all wonderful, revelling in the classic pastiches
and with Barbara Bonney showing how you can be an opera singer
without having to sound like a big wobbly diva.
Just to give you
an idea of what you might expect by way of a story-line, here
is a précis of the synopsis: The opera tells the story of a
Greek immigrant named Dionysos who discovers the music of opera
and leaves his job in a foundry to devote himself to it. He
is visited by the ghosts of Carmen, and later by Butterfly and
Norma, all of whom urge him to die and follow them into opera
heaven. A workmate, Dionysos’s friend, arrives and tries to
persuade him to return to the foundry. Dionysos expresses that
he is strong enough to live in this world. The Opera Singer
- the object of Dionysos’s desire, comes out of a perfume shop.
This is the chance Dionysos has been awaiting. He longs to speak
with her, to touch her; he tries to kiss her, but she is afraid
and pushes him away. The police arrive, and he is condemned
by the crowd. It seems Dionysos will be sent to prison. Suddenly
the Opera Singer stands up for Dionysos with a passionate declaration
of love. Her words save him. Everyone rejoices, except the Chief
of Police. Later, the Chief of Police explains to Dionysos that
the Opera Singer has left for Tokyo and that she spoke up only
to save herself from bad publicity. Dionysos is in despair.
But the Ghosts of the Opera interfere. A huge windstorm has
forced the cancellation of all plane flights. The Opera Singer
re-appears. Dionysos is filled with renewed hope on seeing the
Opera Singer. The two agree on the unlikely nature of their
encounter and conclude the opera with an “unlikely” duet.
In terms of the
music, there are some nice moments and plenty of lyrical writing,
but without an obvious ‘hit’ number which might lift the whole
thing to a higher level, although the progressions in parts
of ‘Grand Grand Freedom’ get close to something anthem-like.
Unfortunately for me, the build-up is too easily diffused by
the ‘opera’ aspect, which means that such numbers have to run
on into somewhat improbable wandering about – workers singing
the names of classical composers - that kind of thing. Part
of the problem is indeed the libretto, which might have benefited
from some serious editing at an earlier stage. With so many
words to fit in, the composer will always have a hard job avoiding
aimless padding and keeping things tight.
There are some beautiful
lines: ‘whispering voice/incantations/immaterial instrument/
attentive mother’s darkness lightening lullaby’ but not everything
has this kind of core impact. The writer’s number one rule,
‘omit needless words’, could easily be adapted to include ‘omit
needless lines’ here, with plenty of dodgy stuff that even Telemann
might have had to work hard to fit in.
It’s easy to be
critical, and I do appreciate the creative input which has gone
into making the production a reality. Take away all of the big
names and what are we left with? Probably not a work which would
otherwise be considered by a huge firm like DG. Welcome To
The Voice is basically a chamber opera which could effectively
be taken up by smaller companies rich in character singers,
but for whom a symphonic orchestra is a budget too far. The
instrumentation is of necessity somewhat limited, but this is
only a problem if your expectations have been conditioned by
listening to too much Verdi. A comparison might be Weill’s Threepenny
Opera, but that is more theatre than opera and with plenty
of spoken text, of which there is none in WTTV. John
Gay’s original The Beggar’s Opera might be closer to
the mark, especially if you know the sugary version by Richard
Bonynge, but I don’t insist on finding historical precedent
– there are plenty of examples of spiritual mucking-about with
the affairs of man in the often tortuous world of baroque opera.
What do I miss most
in this production? I suppose my main bugbear is that the whole
thing takes itself too seriously. There are no jokes as far
as I can tell, no moments of dramatic light relief which would
refresh the mind for further gloom. In this sense the ‘drama’
as such remains pretty much on one level throughout, so the
inclination to fall asleep is never too far away. I don’t insist
on new operas having songs in the style of Tom Lehrer being
shoehorned in just to get a cheap laugh, but there were several
moments where I felt opportunity for some wit and fun were missed
– unless you count the ending, which has to be some kind of
joke on someone. If you want fun, drama and a hit aria on one
album ‘The Soul Cages’ has more, and ‘Punch the Clock’ has it
all. Another problem is that of what one of my composition teachers
called ‘sleeping on both sides of the blanket’. I appreciate
that one of the raisons d’êtres for the whole thing is the combination
of different kinds of voices, but even taking this into consideration
this piece never really pins its colours to the mast in any
stylistic sense. There are bits of opera, bits of musical, bits
of a kind of ‘world’ music with Ned Rothenberg’s shakuhachi
for Madame Butterfly, bits of jazz and plenty of bits which
might fit into something by John Adams or Michael Nyman – there’s
both fish and flesh, but they don’t always sit together entirely
comfortably.
Despite the production
having been put together a bit like a patchwork quilt, due to
the work schedule of some of the stars involved, the performances
gel fairly well, being held together by the glue of the extremely
hard-working Brodsky Quartet. There are one or two slight nasties
in the recording, with Costello’s voice suffering badly at one
point. With multi-tracking and a heavy reliance on studio effects
in places I doubt this will become anyone’s Hi-Fi demonstration
disc. To be fair, while I doubt I shall be playing this CD much
I found the experience less awful than I might have expected when
making a start. It’s a bit like breaking your leg on a Hollywood
film set: painful in places, but at least you can enjoy your all-star
cast afterwards.
Dominy Clements
Profane
Voices:
