The Corridor/Semper Dowland, sempter dolens - Theatre of Melancholy
From: Monday, 6th July 2009
To: Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Our Review: 
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Synopsis
The Corridor: a scena for soprano, tenor and six instruments further explores the Orpheus myth, which has been a recurring theme in Birtwistle's work since the early 1970s. The character of Eurydice, is at the centre of this re-telling and Orpheus is sung off-stage. Birtwistle has worked again with librettist David Harsent on The Corridor, with whom he scored huge operatic successes with Gawain and The Minotaur. The Corridor freeze-frames the devastating moment when Orpheus turns to look back at Eurydice as they leave the underworld and loses her forever, condemning her to remain in hell. In Semper Dowland, sempter dolens, semper dolens: theatre of melancholy ('always Dowland, always doleful' was Dowland's own, punning description of himself), Birtwistle arranges Dowland's Seven Teares Figured in Seven Passionate Pavanes and intersperses them with new music, setting the Lachrimae poems of Geoffrey Hill.
Our Review:
17 July 2009
Harrison Birtwistle’s latest theatrical offering was premiered at the 62nd Aldeburgh Festival last month, in the splendid new Britten Studio at Snape. Designer Alison Chitty built a set – a gently concertinaed wall of wooden panelling and floor – which reflected the new building and enabled a taste of it to be experienced by attenders to the subsequent performances in London and Bregenz.
Chitty’s set sits elegantly in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, creating a vibrant atmosphere for Birtwistle’s pared-down drama which revisits the Orpheus legend he’s explored so many times before. It’s tempting to say he should move on and, like his main character, leave behind the past (not look back perhaps?) but he does, with The Corridor give us an exciting glimpse into the moment that Orpheus turns and so condemns his wife to a second death and himself a desolate future.
The climactic moment comes just a few minutes in and the remainder of t...
Cast
Elizabeth Artherton (soprano)
Mark Padmore (tenor)
Elizabeth Atherton
Mark Padmore
Creative
Harrison Birtwistle (Music)
David Harsent (The Corridor) (Lyrics)
Geoffrey Hill (Semper Dowland; semper dolens) (Lyrics)
Aldeburgh Festival (Producer)
Southbank Centre (Producer)
Bregenz Festival (Producer)
London Sinfonietta (Company)
Ryan Wigglesworth (Conductor)
Peter Gill (Director)
Alison Chitty (Design)
Paul Pyany (Lighting)
Peter Gill (Director)
Alison Chitty (Design)
Paul Pyant (Lighting)
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