![]() Peter Grimes and Billy Budd describe the fate of men who fall foul of bigots and mobs. " From patriotism turned to persecution, Save Us, animals and men". "Progress" moves further west, and with it, conformity, gentrification and hypocrisy. In Paul Bunyan, ancient forests are felled, the wood used for houses and railway tracks. Britten's sojourn in America was comfortable, but he picked up on the darker sides of the America Dream. Britten, Pears and Auden left Europe, hoping to find a new world uncontaminated by the strife of 1930's Europe. However, Paul Bunyan springs from a much deeper groundswell of pain and disillusion. Britten and Auden were well aware of Brechtian dialectics and the political music theatre of their period, and this has some effect on the stylized, almost agit prop narrative. Management/staff relations in the logging camp are better organized than in many real life businesses. If Paul Bunyan isn't a hymn to kitsch Americana, what is it? In the opening chorus, the singers sing that the Revolution has turned to rain. Perhaps Britten is demonstrating the truth in Auden's phrase " From the accidental beauty of singalongs, Save Us, animals and men". Parts of the piece sound corny because what theyĭepict is corniness. The clumsiness of some of the musical writing in Paul Bunyan is inįact artistic licence. The Christmas Party, for example, suggests the feast in Albert Herring, a much bleaker opera than most realize ( read more here). For all its faults, Britten learned a lot from Paul Bunyan. The many numbers like the Lumberjacks Chorus, The Quartet of Swedes, the Cook's Duet and Tiny's Lament rattle off cheerily but in such profusion the second half of the operetta starts to feel forced. (read more here) In Paul Bunyan, he resurrects it for grown-ups, with even more punch.Īll the numerous cameo parts and choruses were deftly sung and blocked, keeping the pace lively even in the Second Act where the inventiveness in the music starts to pall Britten had written "popular music" such as the Cabaret Songs (to poems by Auden) so satirical pastiche came easily to him. Britten employed this Siegfried/ Wood Dove imagery in his The Sword and the Stone (1939), written for children. ![]() Just as Siegfried is led into the forest by a wood dove, we in the audience are being beguiled, led into a forest of dreams. The all-important "wood dove"theme was played with suitable menace. Here, we could hear snatches from Peter Grimes in embryo, such as the slithering snake-like bassoons, and the way lines stretch along the range of voices in the chorus. Sunderland also doesn't indulge in cute for its own sake. The Blues Singers aren't camped up, nor are the hard-working labourers in the camp trivialized by being dressed up to look like animals. The "Trees" in the Prologue were shown as simple planks of wood. Liam Steel directs, using a set designed by Anna Flieschle where the human qualities of the opera come into greater focus. Conducted by Philip Sunderland, the score is revealed in all its gawky glory but without mawkish easy laughs. A professional cast is used, lifting standards way above well-meaning amateur earnestness. Fortunately, the ETO production minimizes kitsch and maximizes meaning. Paul Bunyan needs to be understood on its own terms and in the context of Britten's creative development. Paul Bunyan is a heroic myth, not reality. Fundamentally the piece isn't about Americana at all, and attempts to present it as such only damage its reputation. She wrote The Operas of Benjamin Britten, tye standard reference. ![]() " From homespun culture manufactured in cities, Save us, animals and men" HERE is a link to Claire Seymour's exceptionally penetrating review, in Opera Today. If anything, modern audiences are even less likely to get Paul Bunyan, accustomed as we are to gung-ho feelgood depictions of Americana, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, cowboy movies and TV. ![]() When it premiered in 1941, audiences couldn't figure it out. The English Touring Opera's Paul Bunyan.makes an excellent case for Britten's most misunderstood opera.
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