Curlew River

Published Friday 19 August 2005 at 17:00 by Brian G Cooper

Britten’s landmark 1964 opera, the first of three church parables, was inspired by the Japanese Noh play Sumidagawa (Sumida River), whose Buddhist themes of death and fate focus on a mad mother seeking her lost son. Persuading a ferryman to take her across the river to find him, she hears his tale of a child abused and left to die by a thief. Distraught with grief, she arrives at the other bank to discover her son’s grave.

Rejecting this final note of despair, Britten transposed the Noh drama to East Anglia and deliberately christianised it within a medieval English mystery play, finally proclaiming Resurrection hope.

This Edinburgh International Festival production under director Olivier Py is a memorable triumph of sustained excellence. From the moment black-robed monks appear on Pierre-Andre Weitz’s black-timbered high-stepped set chanting plainsong, to the final vision of the child at the tomb as boy-king Jesus, this richly textured and deeply symbolic work totally enthrals.

Lead singers excel. Toby Spence’s red-painted Madwoman tears the audience with grief-stricken lament, Neal Davies as the traveller nobly pleads her cause, William Dazeley invests rough Ferryman with lofty authority, Tim Mirfin is an Abbot of dignity, young Max Thomson grows in confidence as the child. Directed by Garry Walker, Royal Scottish Academy’s talented musicians and chorus sensitively express the nuances of Britten’s musico-drama and William Plomer’s tightly-focused libretto, in a production subtly echoing Noh stagecraft.