FERAL (Atmospheres 2021/Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama)****

 

By Dave

Link: https://www.rwcmd.ac.uk/events/feral

Available until: 9^th May 2021

Feral is a stunning and inventive opera. At just under ten minutes, it’s probably not quite the shortest opera I’ve seen or heard (I think Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge just about has the edge there) but the ideas in it are so interesting, I could easily see it becoming a full-length work.

A headmistress speaks to an untidy schoolgirl called Isabella. But it soon becomes clear Isabella is not just untidy. Her body language is unusual. The unearthly yet beautiful sounds she sometimes produces sound more like an animal than a human being. And there’s a very good reason for that – Isabella was raised by wolves.

Anna Wood’s music is very beautiful. It’s written for two sopranos who play very different characters but their vocal lines twist perfectly round each other and when they sing in unison, the two vocal lines sound great together even though they are very different and it’s hard to imagine the characters will ever be metaphorically in harmony.

Rosie Kat has written a clear and uncomplicated libretto which shows the differences in the characters as well as telling us what we need to know without distracting us from what is going on underneath the surface - a really interesting dynamic between two very different characters. Rosie also directs and she has really encouraged the two singers to show the contrast between them in their movements - there are some great shots of Isabella standing or sitting but clearly being not quite human.

Anna Fitzgerald (Isabella) and Olivia Bandler-Llewellyn are both clearly highly gifted lyric sopranos, quite similar in tone but completely different in their interpretations of their roles. Anna really goes for it when she’s showing Isabella’s animalistic side and she’s fascinating to watch. Anna is a really exciting performer whose talents obviously aren’t restricted to singing. However Olivia deserves massive credit for making so much of the role of the very contained and correct Headmistress when she’s sharing the stage with a character who’s at least half-wolf.

A really incredible and original opera which I’d love to see extended into a full-length work.