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THE SWANHUNTER · 06/04/2015

LINBURY STUDIO · OPERA NORTH & THE WRONG CROWD

Opera North and The Wrong Crowd get together to put a production which has the goal to introduce the youngest members of the family to Opera. Opera North is the National's English Opera company in the north, that tours around not only the UK but also to other opera houses around Europe. For this production of THE SWANHUNTER they have partnered up with one on the most playful and inventive theatre companies in the UK: THE WRONG CROWD, founded in 2011 by three theatre makers, Hanna Mulder (writer/director), Rachael Canning (puppet maker/designer) and Bonnie Mitchell (producer).

Based on a tale from the Finnish folk epic The Kalevala, Swanhunter is a magical chamber opera written by the composer and librettist of Opera North, Jonathan Dove, with libretto by Alasdair Middleton. Scored for six singers and six musicians, the latter playing percussion, violin, harp, accordion, double bass and a wind instrument I could not see from my seat. The musicians were at sight of the audience which I thought it was a good thing since it would give the kids a chance to see them play, it was particularly fun to see the percussionist, he was in charge of many of the sound effects.

Puppet Lemminkäinen :: image by Richard Davenport

It tells the story of Lemminkäinen, a young hunter from the south, determined to travel north in search of a wife. In his travels he meets the Mother of the North and implores her to introduce him to his future wife. Before the Mother of the North agrees to show him to her she requires him to carry out some deeds. While he tries to fulfill the third task he gets murdered by a character who I couldn't quite tell who he was, and his body is then chopped into pieces by the devil's son and thrown into the river of death, which I thought it was a bit too much for seven year old kids to cope with, even if it's told in a friendly way. The kid sitting next to me seem a bit uneasy about the image of the devil and what had happened to Lemminkäinen. I found it a bit funny that even though the opera was called THE SWANHUNTER Lemminkäinen fails in hunting the animal. Nevertheless I found the story very entertaining and I couldn't but stare at all times.

Mother Death :: image by Richard Davenport

Musically speaking, and bare in mind this is just my humble opinion and this is not my field of expertise, I found it a bit flat, there were no catchy melodies that could stick in the audience's heads and the songs sounded very similar to each other. But I guess Mr. Dove had in mind that it had to be a simple opera for kids to understand, hence the repetition of verses, so that kids could understand what the performers were singing without the need to read subtitles, as it's often the case in operas.

The set design was extremely clever, the story was followed by campers on a camping site, they had their tents set in a circle which they also used to change themselves into the other different roles they were playing, and they would have other props such as rocks which they would move around the stage depending on their needs. 

Singers surrounded by tents :: image by Richard Davenport

Only Lemminkäinen's mother and Lemminkäinen himself were played by performers only playing that part, were as the other four singers would perform more than one role and would also move around the puppets involved in the story. The puppets were absolutely brilliant and they played an important role in the performance. I would like to point out the way they represented the Mountains. Instead of building the mountains they built the sky and they cut mountains' counter-form into it, so they projected light onto the sky to represent the different times of the day and the mountains would be seen as a dark outline at all times, it was utterly smart.

The performers were all excellent, they exaggerated their actions so kids could understand what was happening but at the same time it didn't feel patronising at all, they treated their young audience as young adults, which I'm sure they appreciated. Kids hate to be patronised.

The swan puppet :: image by Richard Davenport

It was an awesome experience and if I had kids of my own I would definitely take them to a show like this, it only lasted for 70 minutes, which makes it easier for kids to pay attention throughout the whole performance. I was sat on the upper circle of this cosy little theatre within the Royal Opera House and my ticket was £21.50, but kids had a discount so there's no excuse to take your kids to the opera. I hope The Royal Opera House keeps it up with this kind of shows for I'd be delighted to attend to them again.