What Dreams May Come - English Touring Opera
An intense and intimate spectacle, brought to life with beautiful words and music, and some amazingly up-close performances from four opera singers that we would normally be watching and listening to from seats in the stalls or circle of the main theatre auditorium.
Norwich Theatre
After the drama and spectacle of last night's 'The Capulets and The Montagues' at Norwich Theatre Royal I am back in Theatre Street for a Saturday evening soirée at the adjacent Stage Two, where four singers from English Touring Opera are presenting 'What Dreams May Come', a brand new small-scale opera set inside a hospital where an old man lies dying. Conceived by Valentina Creschi, and directed by Erika Gundesen, the work follows neatly from last night's main opera in that it comprises nineteen songs, all inspired by the Bard's words, and set to the music of composers including Franz Schubert, Benjamin Britten, and Franz Schubert. There is also one instrumental piece, 'The Dance of The Winds', composed by Henry Purcell, and which was inspired by 'The Tempest'.
Anyone who has ever spent time in a hospital, watching a loved one fade in their final days and hours, will immediately connect with this work, but in a very beautiful and peaceful way. The patient in the bed is actually a puppet, designed and directed by Matt Hutchison, which is animated and performed to by the four singers – soprano Alys Mererid Roberts, mezzo Emily Hodkinson, tenor Tamsanqa Taylor Lamani, and baritone Samuel Pantcheff. Between them, they become the nurses and doctors caring for their patient, the patient's family who visit, and also the patient and his partner as he dreams and remembers their life together. The songs are accompanied by music performed by a three-piece ensemble of violin, cello and flute, and led by composer and pianist Erika Gundesen.
Within the intimate setting of the studio space of Stage Two this became an incredibly profound and moving experience. Watching flashbacks in the memories of a dying man as he first meets, and then loses, his wife, and then becoming a passive observer as his own daughter and her husband bring his grandchild to visit him at his bedside, are an incredibly intense and intimate spectacle, portrayed close-up with beautiful words and music, and some amazing performances from four opera singers that we would normally be watching and listening to from seats in the stalls or circle of the main theatre auditorium.
Maybe it is the personal memories that the work evoked, or perhaps it is the sheer quality and strength of the piece, but I left feeling both emotionally uplifted and drained by the experience in equal measure. A stunning and intimate contrast to the glory and passion of the previous night's full-on operatic experience.
