Economical … Devon Harrison, Caroline Modiba, Deborah Aloba, Andrew Clarke, Aivale Cole and Grace Nyandoro in Treemonisha.
Photograph: Robert Workman
August 28, 2019
Flora Wilson
The year 1911 was a vintage one for opera. Bartók composed Bluebeard’s Castle, Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole
made their debuts. All three are now repertory fixtures. The same can’t
be said for Treemonisha, another work that premiered in 1911 and one of
the rarities at this year’s ever-resourceful Grimeborn, a musical
theatre and opera festival in east London.
This three-acter is by Scott Joplin, the self-styled king of ragtime,
and it was his second attempt in the genre. He called his first a
ragtime opera, and its score is sadly lost, but in Treemonisha Joplin
wanted to show his credentials as a serious composer in a European vein,
even writing his own libretto in a gesture to Richard Wagner.
Treemonisha is a long way from Bayreuth. Its touches of Wagnerian
harmony mingle with middle-period Verdi, perhaps a dash of Schubert,
plenty of Tin Pan Alley and, inevitably, explosions of ragtime. In the Spectra Ensemble’s
reduction for Grimeborn, we get none of the symphonic heft Joplin was
so keen to exploit. But there were excellent performances by the six
musicians, led by flautist and music director Matthew Lynch. Berginald
Rash’s clarinet playing was especially stylish.
The singing was mixed. Joplin’s solo lines are surprisingly angular and,
aside from a few strophic numbers, often bitty – hard to pull off
without more luxurious orchestral support. Nevertheless, Grace Nyandoro
as Treemonisha was a sweetly reluctant heroine, all hand-wringing and
lip-pursing, her soprano metallic and hyper-focused, as she survives
abduction to demonstrate the value of education.
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