Composers who based operas on literary classics

THIS lecture and recital was an ingenious look at examples of operas based on stories taken from different types of literature.

Joanna Harries presented examples from nine operas, singing arias from some and playing recordings from others.

Her solos were expertly accompanied by pianist Lu Liu, who contributed to the relaxed yet instructive morning.

Harries’s theme was “How is it possible to write an opera based on a written text and what would the characters sound like? How can the choice of voice type convey a character? And how can an opera convey the narrative?’

She linked her examples to the development of her passion for literature through childhood fairy tales and Lewis Carroll, her adolescent discovery of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters and then to the sophisticated love of the plays of Shakespeare, Wilde and Chekhov. There was much to learn.

The first three examples demonstrated Harries’s mezzo-soprano range, her control of tone and texture and her ability to convey contrasting characters to the audience. She started with an aria from Rossini’s La Cenerentola.

Having considered the various endings for this tale in the canon of fairy tales, she assured us that Rossini chose a happy ending and illustrated this with Cinderella’s solo Non più mesta, a fine if somewhat flashy aria full of coloratura.

For the next example from Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Harries sang the witch’s Hurr hopp hopp hopp with gusto and then with yet another contrast, I Flew High In My Dreams from Todd’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, we heard a sweet reflective style.

Illustrations via video recordings followed from Great Expectations in which Argento’s solo for Miss Haversham’s Fire, full of leaps and runs, conveys her madness, Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights in which Reneé Fleming sang the part of Cathy.

Examples from Dove’s Mansfield Park, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Walton’s The Bear (Chekhov) contributed to the rich mix of music and styles and reflected how so many operas are based on different genres of literature.

There was a small, discerning audience who happily contributed opinions and guesses about choice of voice for various parts.

Not only was this a very enjoyable morning of music but also instructive, introducing us to some lesser-known composers.

Susan Edwards