|
The Burning Question
(La domanda scottante) The Music Troupe at the Tete-à-Tête Festival The Cockpit Theatre, London NW8 8EH Thursday 1 September 2022 music by Edward Lambert
words by Norman Welch & Edward Lambert with additional material by Ambrose Bierce (1842 - ca. 1914) and the Latin Requiem Mass 
|
Director: Tabitha Benton-Evans Movement: Jenny Weston Arianna: Rosalind Dobson (soprano) The Pope: Arlene Belli (mezzo-soprano) Ignacio: Peter Martin (tenor) S. Pietro: Samuel Lom (bass) Piano duet: Susan Norman & Elspeth Wilkes 
|
Attended by a demonic manservant and an angelic maid, the first female Pope has died. She now wants nothing less than a cosy retirement in paradise, but Someone has other ideas and the elevator going upwards gets stuck. It's a Day of Wrath! What does St Peter, the Caretaker, know? Does he hold the key to the plot? Accompanied by piano duet and a choir of heavenly voices, this is a satire that confronts the ridiculous, the sublime, love, death and comic opera all at the same time.
A comic opera - with an Italian hue
On Sunday 1st September 2019, the lift carrying Pope Francis to the Papal balcony got stuck. In the opera, this incident becomes a Dantesque dilemma concerning the destination of the soul. In this case, the Pope, now dead, is female. “She’s done some mighty good by cleansing the Church as only a woman could” - and so she’s now destined to carry on the good work in Hell. Ignacio, the demon valet, Hades’ son, is worried how daddy will react to a woman in charge. In any case, the Pope refuses the offer, but this begs the question - why is the lift not taking her skywards? It takes a visit from St Peter to sort things out: it’s revealed that the Pope had a son from an affair with the Goddess of the Underworld... now a lusty young man, Ignacio’s desire for Arianna, the chambermaid, must produce the sparks that will ignite the cleansing fire of Purgatory.
On Sunday 1st September 2019, the lift carrying Pope Francis to the Papal balcony got stuck. In the opera, this incident becomes a Dantesque dilemma concerning the destination of the soul. In this case, the Pope, now dead, is female. “She’s done some mighty good by cleansing the Church as only a woman could” - and so she’s now destined to carry on the good work in Hell. Ignacio, the demon valet, Hades’ son, is worried how daddy will react to a woman in charge. In any case, the Pope refuses the offer, but this begs the question - why is the lift not taking her skywards? It takes a visit from St Peter to sort things out: it’s revealed that the Pope had a son from an affair with the Goddess of the Underworld... now a lusty young man, Ignacio’s desire for Arianna, the chambermaid, must produce the sparks that will ignite the cleansing fire of Purgatory.
|
Rosalind Dobson is a soprano in the Alexander Gibson Opera school at the RCS, where she studies under Wilma MacDougall. Recent appearances include Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring (Clonter Opera) and the Controller in Flight (RCS). She is the 2022 winner of the Ye Cronies Opera Award.
|
|
Peter Martin studied at Leeds University and RCM. Since 2019 he has worked with Opera Holland Park, British Youth Opera & Hampstead Garden Opera. Roles include Emilio (Partenope); Frederic (Pirates of Penzance); Alfredo (Die Fledermaus); Gherardo (Gianni Schicchi) Rinnucio (Gianni Schicchi) and Beppe (I Pagliacci).
|
|
Arlene Belli is an Italian mezzo with Middle-Eastern ancestry, graduate of the Conservatorio S. Cecilia in Rome, winner of the first prize in 2018 at the Simone Alaimo Competition and a recipient of the Sybil Tutton Opera Award 2021. Recently Associate Artist at the National Opera Studio in London.
|
|
Samuel Lom studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the University of Warwick and Universitat der Humboldt in Berlin. At home in the bass and baritone repertory, Samuel is a keen advocate of new music and appeared in 2 Tête-à-Tête shows in 2019. He is also a librettist and translator.
|
|
Tabitha Benton-Evans is a Cornish-Scottish director, writer and performer with an MA in Opera Directing at RWCMD where they directed A Dinner Engagement and wrote and directed a pop-up opera, Interrupted,. They previously studied French at the University of St Andrews where they performed in and directedThe Magic Flute, Orphée et Eurydice and The Pirates of Penzance.
|
Coming up soon...
|
The Duchess of Padua
a parlour opera in four acts after the play by Oscar Wilde Performances planned forJanuary/February 2021 have been postponed A Gothic drama of revenge, passion and murder turned into a ‘parlour opera’… In this early play by Wilde, the beauty of his verse mattered more than the realistic portrayal of character and the credibility of the drama. At times melodramatic, at times sentimental, with everything in between, this adaptation faithfully follows the twists and turns of Wilde's extraordinary plot and reveals it to be more modern than it seems. Designed to make a big impact in small spaces this is a grand, ‘Italian-style’ opera with arias, ensembles, a love-duet, and a death scene condensed for just four voices and piano duet. The performance lasts about 1 hour 40 minutes including interval |
|
What's still to come:
