Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, was performed at the Hackney Empire (one of ‘matchless Matchem’s’ rather florid theatres), it is on the 254 bus route. The production is that of the ETO (English Touring Opera, www.englishtouringopera.org.uk) which takes professional opera about England mostly. This tour includes Perth, and Truro, (Cornwall is not English). Perth is not getting Susannah, but the other two operas will be performed, Don Giovanni and Anna Bolena (Donizetti). I did not hear the latter two, and so, will not review them. (This would not necessarily stop a professional. Fortnight‘s music critic once ‘reviewed’ a concert that had been called off.)
To the matter in hand: Floyd has produced (1953) a very worthy music drama. Susannah was put, in the press, in the same company as Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, and Bernstein’s West Side Story. Floyd does not create any truly memorable tunes. A few hours after this hearing I could not remember any of the music. Not even the ‘big number’ Ain’t it a pretty night? sung by Susannah (Donna Bateman). It is not simply the fact that we have heard them repeatedly that we remember – well – nearly everything from the above mentioned music dramas. The music stays in the mind’s ear long after they have been heard, because they are powerful themes.
I wonder if this ‘opera’ would work better if the cast were singing actors, as in most ‘musicals’? West Side Story is a ‘musical’ after all. Bernstein loathed the recording with opera singers Kiri Te Kanawa and JoseCarrera. Acting singers will concentrate on the music. The sounds coming out of their mouths, and out of the pit, in Susannah, are beguiling. They are not beguiling enough to haunt the mind. (Unlike the sounds from the pit band in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia, which compensates for absurdly po-faced script (libretto / wee book) of Ronald Duncan).
The production was quite good looking. Stage furniture was made to represent any number of things. One was a domestic interior, Susannah Polk and Sam (her brother)’s house. And the Meeting House. Even some hills over-looking the pool in which Susannah bathes – naked – much to the disgust of the Church Elders. They could, of course, have chosen not to look, but they didn’t. Susannah is under the impression (as in the Bible story) that she is not overlooked. But that is of no consequence and she is ostracised. She turns on the congregation and accuses them of being hypocrites. The new preacher Olin Blitch (Andrew Slater) is in an awkward position as he had forced himself on Susannah. A further upshot of this is that Sam Polk shoots him. And is punished for it.
Action-packed you might say. Which may be one of the reasons why the music is slightly deficient. There was a slight problem in that when characters were singing ‘upstage’ (away from the footlights – I hope I’ve got the technical term right – their voiceSeand diction was clearer. Standing or in the case of Donna Bateman, kneeling, at the front of the stage, in the ‘big number’, singers sounded muffled. Apart from Ms Bateman the only other person it really applied to waSeandrew Slater (Olin Blitch). The other small solo parts also constituted themselves a chorus, ‘People of the Valley’.
Se n Clayton (Little Bat McLean) who fancies Susannah played a somewhat underwritten r le very well (he also sang Elder Gleaton in a production for the Wexford Festival, broadcast on RT Radio (Lyric FM presumably)). Elder Gleaton (one of the more obnoxiously self-righteous People of the Valley) in this production is Mark Cunningham, who does not seem to have made any broadcasts or recordings yet. Gleaton’s missus was Renee Salewski. Elder and Mrs McLean were Anthony Cleverton and Sandra Porter the latter has some connections with the composer James MacMillan having taken part in some premieres, the former comes from Tunbridge Wells but escaped to Manchester (the RNCM – Royal Northern College of Music) for his training. Interesting bits of information include the fact that Stephen Anthony Brown (Elder Hayes) has recorded The Maid of Artois a Balfe (the 200th ‘birthday boy this year – 2008) opera (on Campion Cameo).
Susannah iSean honest piece of work. If you are interested in modern American music is well worth witnessing. Especially in the honest well-produced and beautifully-sung staging of the ETO.
Dee Flatt
Link to Amazon (UK) for purchase of a different production of Susannah