Dido and Aeneas Interview

Great audience in the Irish Examiner today for the upcoming Dido and Aeneas. Having fun rehearsing and being actors on stage. Getting comfortable and activated by actually being part of the story and not only in the pit, unseen_

Bewitched by her love

Friday, September 09, 2011

Fear and mistrust push Dido to reject Aeneas`s love in a translation that utilises the musicians as actors, says Nicki ffrench Davis.

WITH opera back on the Cork Opera House autumn-winter programme, a successful in-house show first produced in the spring returns. An exciting version of Purcell`s small but perfectly-formed Dido and Aeneas benefits from a musical re-imagining and a deft psychological re-appraisal. It is the inspiration of director John O`Brien.

With apiece of the four singers playing at least two parts, the characters become more composite and the narrative becomes universal. "I had through a reading of Dido a few days ago," says O`Brien, "and I noticed how Dido and the Sorceress could be seen as two sides of the same person, with the Sorceress as Dido`s alter-ego. It makes the whole story quite Freudian; she sabotages her own happiness. It`s almost a woman who has come out of a loving relationship, her husband has died and she is feeling guilty, and then, suddenly, this hot new thing arrives on the picture but she doesn`t trust his love. She pushes him too far, too soon, and kills it - the saame way that so many people sabotage their own relationships."

Paring the form of singers down to 4 and doing away with the chorus, he took no chances with his singers, making certain he had the best. Securing the part of Cork-born international soprano Cara O`Sullivan for the leading role, his choice of coloratura soprano Mary Hegarty, Swedish soprano Caitrin Johnsson and tenor Simon Morgan shows a judicious appreciation of the fine musicality and drama skills opera requires.

O`Brien brought in Marja Gaynor, a baroque violinist who also plays folk and rock music, to go on a new system of the 300-year-old, one-hour opera. "It`s a baroque score, so even though it is written, there is a lot more freedom than in later music," says Gaynor.

Much of the medicine in Baroque scores is partially improvised and Gaynor extends this exemption to her quality of instruments, as would have been born when it was written. The organ and harpsichord parts are played by an accordion, and Gaynor jumped at the chance to take the gift of her compatriot Piia Pakarinen, from Finland, to perform. Joining them is Carolyn Goodwin, an established Cork musician, on soprano and tenor saxophones as comfortably as clarinet and bass clarinet. Completing the instrumental line-up is cellist Ilse de Ziah, a gutsy improviser who also performs in a place of styles. With new instrument colours, the opera takes on folk flavours, including tango and habanera.

O`Brien adds to the numbers on stage by fashioning the musicians a key component of the drama. "I had done shows in Canada with performers who are each actors, singers and musicians. Those shows were more musical theater and cabaret, but I found working with the kinetics of a radical who could do all three - act, sing and represent an instrument - a very cool thing, and I wanted to see how it would make in the circumstance of opera. I knew that we give some musicians who are great performers and born on stage," he says.

"We really struck gold with the band," says Gaynor. "When John explained what he wanted, my first idea was `I don`t need to say anything and I don`t wish to do anything embarrassing`. It was a monumental task to learn the whole score, but now we live it we can bring so well together it makes it very enjoyable.

"For all 4 of us, I believe it has developed a new position to us as musicians. What we were taught as students was to abide quiet and not go too much - this has granted us new attention to how we perform, right down to how we pluck up our instruments."

To make the dream, O`Brien joined forces with choreographer Inma Moya Pavon. "I thought we could search the physicality of performing the instruments," he says, "and from my previous experience in Canada I understood the rehearsal process of how to do it happen.

"Inma`s so subtle in how she does things that I mean the actors don`t understand how she breaks down subconsciously what they`re doing. It`s not about putting on a facade. I cherished the audience to see an elaboration of what people who are playing feel when they`re really into it.

"Lisa Zagone`s sexy and edgy costumes are section of that too - opera is most people screaming their emotions, it is about showing what someone feels. Opera is about extremes, like science fiction or fantasy," he says.

Dido & Aeneas runs at Cork Opera House Sept 15-17.

here is a time from the Spring run