Birtwistle: The Mask of Orpheus
Soloists
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Davis
I’ve wanted to listen to this opera for a long time so I put aside some time to listen to it an act at a time with a score to follow. It is an extraordinary work - certainly the most complex opera I have ever heard and probably one of the most complex of all time.
it is difficult to know where to begin. The opera is on a vast scale with a big cast, several of whom share roles of the characters in different incarnations. The orchestra has no bowed strings but a huge complement of wind (3 contrabassons!) percussion and plucked strings, including electric guitars. The vocal and choral parts are virtuosic and goodness knows how people went about learning them to perform the work live on stage. Bittwistle’s music is famous for its hard-edged very aggressive sound and while there is plenty of that there are also many quieter passages with quite fascinating vocal and orchestral textures. Overlying all of this are the very important electronic effects which at times merge with the orchestral sounds but in several places are heard on their own for several minutes. There is some controversy over the extent to which Birtwistle was wholly responsible for the electronic music , which was realised by other collaborators at IRCAM in Paris. I found the passages where the electronics were integrated into the orchestra fascinating but I couldn’t really make much of the purely electronic interludes.
For a vast and complex piece like this a single hearing can only scratch the surface. I am certainly very glad to have heard it but I need to hear it several times to really start to get into Birtwistle’s sound world. That won’t happen this year - lots more composers to cover before the year is out - but perhaps next year. I’v very glad that I finally got the chance to listen to it property.
