Review: Making Europe Audible & From The Edda, Cockpit Theatre

There can’t be many musical forms as diverse or divisive as opera. Contemporary opera in particular has a reputation for not being exactly crowd-pleasing work, and, notably, few, if any, of its small, dutiful audience are heard humming melodies on the way out of a performance. Is this a bad thing, though? As Andrew Lloyd Webber well knows, Puccini’s tunes are available to keep the populace happy. Some of us crave higher art, don’t you know, which is what drew me to this year’s Tête à Tête Opera Festival, currently enjoying its 20th successful year.  

Although not officially marketed as a double bill, my evening involved two performances, so for convenience — mainly mine, to be fair — I am reviewing them both together here. The first, Making Europe Audible, comprises the work of composers Catherine Kontz and Henri Växby. This plays with performance, migration, history, and language in intriguing ways through four thematically linked pieces. Settled Status I & II are short physical performances, gags really, which demonstrate how frustrating we’ve made staying in the UK for our European friends. (Yes, we are banging on about Brexit again!) Meng Sprooch, Deng Sprooch & Seng Sprooch from Kontz takes inspiration from Luxembourg’s complex history with the German language, and Växby’s Dropping Bombs Stole My Memories is based on the WWII recollections of a Finnish photographer. 

Nothing is big, grand, orchestral, or likely to trouble the Classic FM playlist here. Our ears are, however, treated to piano, voice, percussion, and taped interviews mashed up and structurally messed up by the talented Eunoia Trio. Fortunately, the trio (Johanna Greulich, Louisa Marxen, and Clement Hund-Göschel) have a genuine, warm performative wit about them which prevents any of the avant-garde aural action from feeling overly heavy or pretentious. Växby’s composition has more discipline and focus. It is largely minimalist and melancholy. The more playful rambling work of Kontz still avoids feeling self-indulgent, and nothing outstays its welcome. Perhaps because the work is composed and played by European artists, the pieces feel light on their feet and free from the constraints of snobbery. Anything can, and does, happen, but that serves the point. Nationhood, language, borders, and even war to a degree are all faintly ridiculous, aren’t they?

The second performance of the night, From The Edda by composer Max Mitchell, is less freewheeling. This is a world premiere, no less, so naturally I sat up a little straighter and listened that bit more attentively. It takes the form of a more traditional song cycle based on 10th-century Scandinavian poetry. Its libretto is partly translated by Henry A. Bellows and partly left dramatically in ancient Old Norse. We’re a long way from a Lord of the Rings modern reinvention here. This is mercifully an elf- and orc-free zone. We’re taken back to the original dark source material: a prophetess called Völva (Eyra Norman) and a blackened sun version of the end of days, ultimately represented by the breakdown of coherent language itself.  There is less obvious theatricality to this performance. It is a stand-by-the-piano recital, but soprano Norman still throws every bit of technique and emotion she can at it. It is Armageddon, after all. Underplaying it would seem unnecessarily coy.

My evening at the Tête à Tête Festival proved an enriching, open, and rewarding experience. I consider myself well and truly educated, and more than a little inspired by music pushing boundaries and challenging preconceptions. Count me in for more.

Making Europe Audible
Produced & Presented by the Eunoia Trio
Composed by Catherine Kontz and Henri Växby

From The Edda
Produced & Presented by Max Mitchell
Composed by Max Mitchell
Words by anon. translated by Henry A. Bellows

Making Europe Audible & From The Edda have completed their performances at the Cockpit, but the Tête à Tête Opera Festival continues until Sunday 20 September.