Under the Greenwood Tree
Golden Bough
Under the Greenwood Tree
by Paul Carr, libretto by Euan Tait, after Thomas Hardy
Dorset Opera at the Coade Theatre, Bryanston, Blandford Forum until 27th July
Review by Claire Alexander
From its earliest days under the personal ambition and inspiration of the late Patrick Shelley (then Director of Music at Sherborne School), Dorset Opera Festival (now under the equally inspirational artistic directorship of Roderick Kennedy since 2003) has grown and flourished into one of the UKs most successful summer opera festivals and always supporting young and emerging artists. Somewhat further out of London than more well-known names, and now in the beautiful expansive grounds of Bryanston School near Blandford, for a week every year it brings equally stunning top class opera to Dorset and surrounding counties. This year it proudly celebrates fifty illustrious years – how proud would those earliest musicians be!
Under The Greenwood Tree (from the Thomas Hardy novel of the same title) by Paul Carr has been especially commissioned for this occasion and could not have been better chosen. There was palpable anticipation in the audience as it assembled for this, the World Premiere.
True to Hardy’s uncomplicated story – a new schoolteacher, Fancy Day, moves into the village of Mellstock, and is instantly courted by three men (shades of Turandot here, also produced by Dorset Opera Festival in 1978) : Shiner – the earnest well to do farmer and landowner’s son; the vicar who engages her to learn to play the harmonium, who never speaks his love but just assumes it is God-given, and is more than taken aback when Fancy won’t instantly move to Yorkshire with him, where he has been given another incumbency. And finally Dick Dewy, shy, innocent but genuine, and who only sees how the other two suitors have so much more to offer than him. In case you don’t know the book, you can see where this is leading…………..
What composer Paul Carr, also directing, has done is perfectly capture the simplicity and naivety of the novel and this production of Under The Greenwood Tree is absolutely true to that in its joy, bringing to life the unremarkable day-to-day pleasures of Dorset village life in the late 19th Century. Carr has bravely trusted his instincts and his material, and been genuinely true to sense of time and place without any pretention.
Beyond the narrative of the story, Hardy’s novel also recounts how rural life is both marked by, and marks, the ever changing seasons, and the opera follows the same structure starting with Christmas night and ending as autumn begins to close in. Musically the chorus mirrors these too – indeed it is as though the chorus are the representation of the seasons. I particularly enjoyed the tidal wave of ‘summer storm’ the libretto screaming the pain of Dewy’s misunderstood love; and the hymn-like anthem to the all-seeing Greenwood Tree.
The clever and characterful set (by Rufus Martin) could have come straight out of a Dorset village and opens out into various interiors. If I have a comment, it is that it reduces the stage available for the large chorus. There is a glorious backstage cyclorama of a riverbank which we don’t see enough of.
The opera itself is a mixture of styles, but actually seamlessly merged together by the score and a lightness of touch by conductor Jeremy Carnall. From the first pulsating drumbeat, conjuring up the gentle marching of Dorset rural life, the orchestration was a delight. I could have listened to the orchestra alone, detailed and delicate using all of the orchestral breadth to create the moods of the turning year.
For me Under The Greenwood Tree really came into its own in the second half and although we know what is going to happen in terms of the narrative, the singing was at its most classical and vibrant. The duet between Dewy and Fancy, and Fancy’s aria as she lamented how to manage all this unsought attention, without disappointing her three admirers and causing scandal were truly heartfelt. Jamie Groote brought a gentleness to her performance, well measured and gaining in intensity as the music demanded in the second half. One of the highlights for me was then the trio of the suitors, as each privately lament their lost love. The singing of Felix Kemp (Dewy), Ossian Huskinson (Shiner) and Thomas Humphreys as Vicar Maybold was sublime, well balanced and emotionally honest. Baritone Felix Kemp as Dick Dewy has a brilliant clarity to his voice matched by an understated truthfulness to his performance. The five men of the church Quire (four plus Dewy) provided some excellent and precise quartets and quintets, as well as a playful humour throughout. The way they alternately teased and supported Dewy in his quest for winning Fancy’s heart offered a real presence to village life, never two dimensional.
All the supporting roles, together with the Dorset Opera Chorus at its very very best, filled the auditorium with life and energy.
Dorset Opera Festival has been inspired – here proudly celebrating its fifty years with a West Country born composer, adapting a Hardy novel, steeped in Dorset. Although over the years Dorset Opera Festival has produced works from as wide a range as Wagner (still the best Flying Dutchman I have ever seen) to The Magic Flute (several contrasting productions) it has been totally true to its roots here – shades of the joy of the very first production, The Bartered Bride, way back in 1974. As my companion said as the applause rang out on the interval: ‘spellbinding’.
Under The Greenwood Tree well deserves another incarnation and I shall be first in the queue to hear it again. Meanwhile if you are anywhere near Blandford Forum, Dorset over the next few nights somehow get yourself a ticket. At this year’s festival Under The Greenwood Tree is paired with the iconic Madama Butterfly, which I hear is equally memorable.
Claire Alexander, July 2024
Photography by Julian Guidera
Mark Aspen 