{"id":10210,"date":"2026-03-03T12:12:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/?p=10210"},"modified":"2026-03-03T12:12:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:12:01","slug":"john-joubert-jane-eyre-arcola-theatre-review-by-simon-thackery-the-view-from-the-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2026\/03\/03\/john-joubert-jane-eyre-arcola-theatre-review-by-simon-thackery-the-view-from-the-gods\/","title":{"rendered":"John Joubert – Jane Eyre @ Arcola Theatre. Review by Simon Thackery “The View from the Gods”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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John Joubert \u201cJane Eyre\u201d Arcola, Grimeborn Opera, Hackney<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n

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Laura Mekhail as Jane Eyre. Photo Credit: Camilla Greenwell<\/a><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Review by Simon Jenner, August 7 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though seemingly ideal for operatic treatment, Charlotte Bront\u00eb\u2019s\u00a0Jane Eyre<\/em>\u00a0might have seemed forbiddingly well-loved. Nevertheless almost simultaneously it inspired two operas. Though Michael Berkeley\u2019s 72 minute two-act work was staged and recorded in 2000 after the original first half was stolen, it never established itself. John Joubert\u2019s\u00a0Jane Eyre<\/em>\u00a0was written 1987-97 and in 2016 also recorded in a concert version.<\/p>\n

Only now though at the Arcola\u2019s Grimeborn Festival, has it reached the stage. Directed by Eleanor Burke in Studio 1 for Green Opera till August 9th<\/sup>, it\u2019s a must-see. The sound-world\u2019s seductive, tonal, and the reduced chamber score gleams and flickers, with some romantic heft and sharply-charactered horn, piano, and clarinet. Pure Grimeborn in fact.<\/p>\n

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Photo Credit: Camilla Greenwell<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Joubert (1927-2019) and librettist Kenneth Birkin (who\u2019s present at the four performances) began developing\u00a0Jane Eyre<\/em>\u00a0from 1987 to \u201997, corresponding by over 700 letters. Joubert\u2019s a post-Britten composer, one of the last of the Cheltenham symphonist school who wrote extensively for all genres: but he\u2019s famous for his choral music.\u00a0Jane Eyre\u00a0<\/em>was his eighth and final opera, originally in full score.<\/p>\n

Two kinds of reduction are possible. For Studio 2 there\u2019s usually just a trio of instrumentalists. Following usual Grimeborn practice, for Studio 1 the opera is reorchestrated for a chamber ensemble (string quartet, harp, French horn, bassoon, piano, and regular and bass clarinet) by Thomas Ang (who previously reorchestrated Bartok\u2019s\u00a0Bluebeard\u2019s Castle<\/em>\u00a0for Green Opera\u2019s 5-star 2022 production).<\/p>\n

This makes its ensemble breathe out fiery points of melody, and on occasion richness. In recalling the chamber forces of Britten\u2019s\u00a0The Rape of Lucrece,<\/em>\u00a0seen here in 2018, it brings Joubert closer to one source of inspiration. But the differences are clear too. Joubert is an edgy melodist, and if there aren\u2019t so many great overriding melodies, every vocal line\u2019s both tailored to character and eminently singable. Unlike Britten too Joubert can go for big romantic moments unclouded by ironic self-doubt, when he needs to. That\u2019s essential for the headlong romanticism fuelling\u00a0Jane Eyre<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ideal for Arcola\u2019s Studio 1 too. Kenneth Woods, who conducted the opera\u2019s concert premiere and recording, returns to lead the performances, sharing the podium with current Royal Opera Jette Parker Artist Peggy Wu, who conducts on this occasion. The musicians (Alex Harmon, Aleem Kandour, Daniil Zemtstov, Thomas Vidal, Evangeline Tang, David Wheeler, Lewis Graham) are exemplary. It\u2019s quite wonderful playing, and on occasion one is drawn just to watch them playing stage-right in an alcove.<\/p>\n

Emeline Beroud\u2019s set design and lighting features early Victorian grey dresses and black suits, and an array of items: a sheaf of papers (Holy writ, patriarchal law) suspended above head height. Elsewhere there\u2019s a contrast of flowers: constrained, trained, a woman\u2019s place. It conveys all the navigational tools of patriarchy and women\u2019s ornamental place. But strikingly, red cords feature: often with performers pulling on main protagonists as they strain to free themselves of the gyres of early Victorian mores. And they\u2019re strands towards the solitary figure of Bertha above on the mezzanine weaving a vast red tapestry: half Lady of Shallot, half a hopeless Penelope.<\/p>\n

The libretto cleverly weaves four main incidents \u2013 each a separate act \u2013 in the novel as a flash of memory. Jane leaving Lowood defying the head teacher. Then established at Thornfield (with the hint of partying) saving Rochester from Bertha\u2019s fire-raising. After the interval the botched wedding, and finally the confrontation, again with an authority figure in St John Rivers and the call of Rochester and return. It\u2019s symmetrically neat and spans more of the novel than Berkeley\u2019s for instance.<\/p>\n

Yet there\u2019s a curious dramatic lightness infusing some of the two hours 15 that might have been avoided. That\u2019s the Bertha in the room, or rather above: the madwoman in the attic or here, mezzanine. I\u2019d like to see Jean Rhys stalking out to demand that here at least Bertha be given a voice: a long melismatic vocalese, something to puncture her silencing. We\u2019re told her dancing is an analogue to the singing; as Bertha weaves hypnotically round others just as she sets fires below; or even in one late gesture uses her tapestry to (almost) bless the couple.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019d accept any bit of casuistry to bet that if Joubert saw this performed as an opera he\u2019d feel the lack of Bertha\u2019s voice more acutely. Even Bertha\u2019s off-stage death is merely recounted; Steffi Fashokun\u2019s Bertha Mason might wordlessly convey trauma, dream and turmoil, and she\u2019s superb: but surely red lighting and a wild final dance wouldn\u2019t be too distracting. It\u2019s one of those moments where Joubert needs help so as not to seem to skim over the abyss of love, and its lack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Photo Credit: Camilla Greenwell<\/a><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Singing\u2019s almost wholly confined (especially early on) to the two main protagonists. Laura Mekhail in a high coloratura soprano with a glittering set of top-notes, unfolds Jane\u2019s stubborn growth with a trenchant radiance; and sudden shaft of passion that\u2019s as extreme as you could wish. She lacks neither force nor wit, right from her first defiance. There\u2019s an acoustic that occludes soprano diction more than bass, but surtitles help throughout. And this is where Mekhail\u2019s potent chest register powers out.<\/p>\n

Hector Bloggs\u2019 penetrating baritone and superb diction shudders Rochester\u2019s command, regret and fined-down, bleak despair. Bloggs possesses the right glowering presence but also vulnerability. Anna Sideris, Emily Hodkinson and Lawrence Thackeray offer a harmonised Victorian normality as the Rivers\u2019 family: they harmonise deliciously, but the excellent and characterful Sideris and Hodkinson have little to do. They don\u2019t even multi-role save to swell the great Act Three chant of \u201cBigamy, Bigamy, Bigamy!\u201d echoed later by Bloggs\u2019 \u201cJane\u2026 Jane\u2026 Jane\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Thackeray though is excellent: a handsome domineering presence as St John Rivers, he\u2019s already lacked charm as the Lowood head and now goes on to provide a more compelling apex of confrontation as Mekhail increasingly listens to her voices, not his singular one. It\u2019s pivotal in this version, made far more dramatic than the book, and swivels on Jane heeding the call. There are speaking parts too, strictly limited, with for instance Chris Murphy\u2019s Reverend Wood<\/p>\n

This\u00a0Jane Eyre<\/em>\u00a0has potential for huge success. Notwithstanding my caveats \u2013 about Bertha most of all, and indeed the serious underuse of two singers who don\u2019t even sing in the first two acts, there\u2019s a gripping romantic opera premiere emerging right out of Dalston. Arcola\u2019s Grimeborn have scored another first with a future.<\/p>\n

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Laura Mekhail \u2013 Jane Eyre
\nHector Bloggs \u2013 Edward Rochester
\nAnna Sideris \u2013 Sarah \/ Leah \/ Diana Rivers
\nEmily Hodkinson \u2013 Mrs Fairfax \/ Mary Rivers
\nLawrence Thackeray \u2013 Richard Mason \/ Rev St John Rivers
\nAlexander Semple \u2013 Briggs \/ Brocklehurst
\nChris Murphy \u2013 Rev Wood
\nSteffi Fashokun \u2013 Bertha Mason<\/p>\n

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Alex Harmon \u2013 Oboe \/ Cor Anglais
\nAleem Kandour \u2013 Violin
\nDaniil Zemtstov \u2013 Viola
\nThomas Vidal \u2013 Cello
\nEvangeline Tang \u2013 Double Bass
\nDavid Wheeler \u2013 Horn
\nLewis Graham \u2013 Clarinet<\/p>\n

John Joubert (1927-2019) \u2013 Composer
\nKenneth Birkin \u2013 Librettist
\nEleanor Burke \u2013 Director
\nAlex Gotch \u2013 Movement Director
\nKenneth Woods \u2013 Musical Director \/ Conductor
\nPeggy Wu \u2013 Associate Musical Director \/ Associate Conductor
\nEmeline Beroud \u2013 Production Designer
\nTrui Malten \u2013 Lighting Designer
\nOscar Simms \u2013 Assistant Director<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Camilla Greenwell<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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