Page 17 - HGS Suburb News 152 - Winter 2022

S U B U R B
CULTURE

The Shackled King

and Brünnhildeʼs

Dream Premiere at

the Wigmore Hall

BARRY MILLINGTON couple of projects involving
Counterpoise, the ensemble I run
ne of my most treasured with my wife, the trumpeter
memories, in over five Deborah Calland.
Odecades of attending Our latest commission is a
Wagner operas, is that of watching work written by one of the most
Sir John Tomlinson, the finest significant British composers of
Wotan of my generation, striding our time, John Casken. The
the stage at Bayreuth as the ruler Shackled King, is essentially a Rozanna Madylus and John Tomlinson rehearse
of the gods in Harry Kupfer’s reworking of Shakespeare’s King The Shackled King (Photo: Barry Millington)
landmark Ring production of 1988. Lear, incorporating Shakespeare’s
I little suspected back then that I text, but reordered and set in a that lies between. The now white- heart-rending performance’. She also speaks, to some extent,
would ever have the privilege of vocal continuum that embraces maned Sir John is magnificent in Our wonderful mezzo-soprano, for Everywoman: we go beyond
working with him, as I have been conventional word-setting, spoken the role of Lear: a Daily Telegraph Rozanna Madylus, takes the part the confines of Die Walküre to
doing for the last few years on a text and a form of Sprechstimme review referred to his ‘titanic, not only of Cordelia, but also her contemplate the injustices done
two sisters, Goneril and Regan, and to women through the ages. That
the Fool. Quite a tour-de-force! experience is refracted through a
The Shackled King receives
An Autumn its London premiere at the carefully chosen sequence of post-
Wagnerian repertoire, including
Wigmore Hall on 26 January in several female composers only just
Concert at tandem with a musical receiving the attention they deserve.
The sequence begins with
monodrama I have put together
Fellowship under the title Brünnhilde’s Wotan’s Farewell to Brünnhilde.
Dream. The eponymous Valkyrie,
Knowing we’d have the incomparable
Brünnhilde, is put to sleep by her
Sir John Tomlinson with us to sing
House father Wotan on a mountain rock The Shackled King, it was too
great a temptation not to ask him
at the end of Act 3 of Wagner’s
Die Walküre. Brünnhilde’s Dream to open Brünnhilde’s Dream for
begins by attempting to imagine us with this passage.
SHELLEY-ANNE SALISBURY
what was going through her mind
on the rock, not only her vortex of Booking is now open for
always feel a sense of dread as emotions about the future, but The Shackled King/Brünnhilde’s Dream
the clocks turn back, signifying
I the end of summer and the also her anger about the past. at www.wigmore-hall.org.uk.
start of shorter days and dark
evenings. So, it was a particular
delight to go along to one of Hall and Randall Plumbers
Fellowship House’s Sunday
Afternoon Autumn Concert Series Plumbing and Heating Services • Property Maintenance
the first Sunday after daylight
saving ended. Noriko Ogawa and
her partner, Philip Smith, delighted
us with a selection of works by Photo: Shelley-Anne Salisbury
French composers, Chabrier, I needn’t have worried. to a selection of Ravel’s charming
Ravel and Saint-Saëns. As Noriko Commensurate professionals and short pieces inspired by the world
explained, playing duets on the world class pianists, Noriko and of childhood fantasy and fairy
piano could be challenging as Philip played beautifully and stories. These were technically
there was a great deal of physical without the slightest contretemps. challenging and it was hard to
proximity and fingers often got The 3 Romantic Waltzes by believe Ravel had written them for
entangled. The grand piano Chabrier were a charming voyage young children as teaching pieces.
(originally test driven by Noriko though the heady initial stages of Noriko and Philip definitely had to Central Heating, Plumbing Repairs & Advisory Service
for Fellowship House) suddenly flirtation and courtship through to concentrate and keep their
looked rather small as the pair sat the more settled romantic period composure as they crossed over
down side by side. I sincerely hoped of true love and ended with the into one another’s half of the Look no further... your local plumbers
the couple would be on speaking peaks and troughs of the matured keyboard. The concert ended with Emergency repairs, blocked pipes, drainage,
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also managed with over 10 years included in the £12 ticket (which
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For all your professional but I didn’t even notice it had
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What an ideal way to banish those
11495
Autumn Sunday night blues.
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