{"id":7734,"date":"2017-04-10T22:42:49","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T21:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/?p=7734"},"modified":"2017-04-10T23:14:07","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T22:14:07","slug":"haunted-by-my-visit-to-thornfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2017\/04\/10\/haunted-by-my-visit-to-thornfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Haunted by my visit to Thornfield"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"woocommerce \"><ul class=\"products columns-4\">\n<li class=\"product type-product post-7720 status-publish first instock product_cat-cds has-post-thumbnail shipping-taxable purchasable product-type-simple\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/product\/john-joubert-jane-eyre-an-opera-in-two-acts\/\" class=\"woocommerce-LoopProduct-link woocommerce-loop-product__link\"><span class=\"et_shop_image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jane-eyre-cover.jpg\" class=\"attachment-woocommerce_thumbnail size-woocommerce_thumbnail\" alt=\"John Joubert- Jane Eyre: An opera in two acts\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jane-eyre-cover.jpg 600w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jane-eyre-cover-420x420.jpg 420w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jane-eyre-cover-90x90.jpg 90w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jane-eyre-cover-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jane-eyre-cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jane-eyre-cover-570x570.jpg 570w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jane-eyre-cover-380x380.jpg 380w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jane-eyre-cover-285x285.jpg 285w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><span class=\"et_overlay\"><\/span><\/span><h2 class=\"woocommerce-loop-product__title\">John Joubert- Jane Eyre: An opera in two acts<\/h2>\n\t<span class=\"price\"><span class=\"woocommerce-Price-amount amount\"><bdi><span class=\"woocommerce-Price-currencySymbol\">&pound;<\/span>22.00<\/bdi><\/span><\/span>\n<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Where does an opera really take place?<\/p>\n<p>Why, on the stage, I hear you say.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, that\u2019s true, but not quite the truth. <em>Der Rosenkavalier<\/em> and The Magic Flute might take place on the same stage in the same week, but they clearly don\u2019t take place in the same place.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, in the theatre, each opera will have its own set. Some are more realistic, some are more abstract. But yes, when the situation is normal, one would hope that each opera, perhaps even each act or scene, would take place on a set that is appropriate to the action of the story.<\/p>\n<p>But then what of recordings? And concert performances? Where does the action of an opera take place then?<\/p>\n<p>I have long thought that one of Wagner\u2019s greatest dramatic insights was to create the conditions by which the opera takes place <em>in the orchestra<\/em>. The characters sing in the world of the orchestra, the plot unfolds according the musical threads heard in the orchestra. The orchestra tells us what we\u2019re looking at and where we are. The meaning, the symbolism, the emotion- it\u2019s almost all in the orchestra. For all of his obsessions with <em>Gesamkunstwerke<\/em> (total artwork), which led him to have built the ideal opera house for his works (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Parsifal#The_ban_on_Parsifal_outside_Bayreuth\">and to limit Parsifal to performances in that space in his lifetime<\/a>, a ban which lasted until 1903), Wagner\u2019s opera\u2019s work better than almost anyone else\u2019s as concert works. They work supremely well as works for recording. Solti\u2019s Ring Cycle has stood the test of time as one of the great achievements in the history of recoded music across all genres in spite of the fact that there are no sets. You don&#8217;t need sets for Wagner. Wagner\u2019s Valhalla, Rhine and Cornwall all exist completely, if not exclusively, in the orchestra. The world Wagner creates in the orchestra, and the stories he tells through the orchestra, are so rich, so complete, so convincing and so detailed, that as long as there have been Wagner operas there have been operatic paraphrases and orchestral suites assembled by conductors and composers which even go so far as to dispense with singers.<\/p>\n<p>A certain amount of scene painting and local colour has always been part of opera. Think of the Janissary music from The Abduction from the Seraglio where a few cymbals and a bit of triangle help to give the opera a Turkish flavour- appropriate for the story and popular with Viennese audiences of the day. An obvious and often-cited influence of Wagner is Weber\u2019s <em>Der Freisch\u00fctz<\/em>, notably the wild Wolf\u2019s Glen scene, which is certainly full of wild, evocative nocturnal portent. To me, however, in his mature works, Wagner is the first composer to really create a completely compelling and immersive world within the orchestra that seems to be able to serve as both narrative and setting from beginning to end, not just accompaniment and commentary.<\/p>\n<p>Debussy worked hard to distance himself from Wagner, but was hugely influenced by the bad boy of Bayreuth. <em>Pelleas et Melisande<\/em> is one of the few works I can think of which is as immersive as Wagner. Bartok\u2019s Bluebeard\u2019s Castle is another.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d spent many months working on John Joubert\u2019s Jane Eyre before the ESO\u2019s recent premiere and recording of it for Somm Recordings last year. I knew where there were likely to be balance problems, I knew where there were likely to be tears. What I didn\u2019t know was just how enveloping the orchestral soundworld of Joubert\u2019s Jane would be.<\/p>\n<p>Being on a theatrical or operatic set is almost always a bit of a let down- however convincing a production is at making you think you\u2019re watching the real thing in the audience, when you\u2019re on stage, it looks like you\u2019re in a theatre. Everyone around you is wearing freakish amounts of makeup. The sets look cheap and fake, you can see into the wings, and when you stare pensively into the distance, there are hundreds of punters staring back at you. Being in the middle of the action on stage you have to work harder to suspend disbelief than the audience.<\/p>\n<p>In Wagner, however, I think that when you\u2019re surrounded by that music, it\u2019s even more immersive for the musicians than for the listeners. And so it was, to my surprise and delight, in Jane Eyre.<\/p>\n<p>From the first notes of the first scene in the first rehearsal (for once, we actually managed to start with the first bar of Act 1 \u2013Scene 1), it really did feel like we were entering a world of John\u2019s imagining. Over the course of those two short but epic days, my mind built sets. Colors of walls were noted, shifting shades of light coming through windows were observed. I came to picture the rooms of Thornfield during Jane and Rochester\u2019s courtship, I came to feel a slightly ominous sense of dread as the church doors opened to reveal their doomed wedding ceremony, and I can still feel the smug claustrophobia of St John Rivers\u2019 house during his confrontation with Jane.<\/p>\n<p>That this vivid, rich and compelling world existed only in John\u2019s imagination and in the printed instructions he put on the page for nearly 20 years is both depressing and inspiring. We as musicians sometimes take for granted the miracle by which a score can preserve a piece of music in static silence for decades until it can be heard. But it is even more miraculous when finally hearing that music can allow a drama to be seen, allow characters to come to life, allow buildings and landscapes to be observed and remembered. The acrid smoke of Bertha\u2019s fires sting the nose through the orchestra. When Rochester sings of the nightingale, one sees the night, feels the evening dew settling in, all through the orchestra.The world of Joubert\u2019s Jane Eyre certainly cast a spell on me- I can scarcely think of an opera which begins and ends more magically, and throughout our work on the piece, I feel like I spent hardly a minute in Edgbaston.<\/p>\n<p>Those were two very happy days, and I very much hope that we\u2019ll be able to reunite that astonishing cast for another round of performances, but for now, the world of Jane Eyre is one I can remember but not visit. It was lovely to see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rayfieldallied.com\/artists\/david-stout\">David<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aprilfredrick.com\/\">April<\/a>, our magnificent Rochester and Jane, at John\u2019s 90th birthday the other day. Some things are too fragile and too precious to discuss, but seeing them, in a noisy function room full of cake and tea and saturated with oppressive fluorescent light, I felt myself, just for a very, very brief moment, remembering what it was like to stand in the ruins of Joubert\u2019s Thornfield watching two damaged lovers heal each other and re-start their lives. I hope that we did a good job of allowing our audience, both live and through the recording, to &#8220;see&#8221; the action unfold through John&#8217;s miraculous scoring, but we are the blessed few who have not just seen Joubert&#8217;s Thornfield, we have been there. Such things are not for discussing at social occasions. Such things are not for discussing at all.<\/p>\n<p>Those of us who have been to Joubert\u2019s Thornfield are both blessed and changed, forever just a little homesick for a world created by a great composer and finally brought to life for 48 precious hours by 35 hard-working musicians. Getting there costs more than most journeys, but at long last a few of us know the way.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2017\/04\/10\/haunted-by-my-visit-to-thornfield\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Where does an opera really take place? Why, on the stage, I hear you say. Of course, that\u2019s true, but not quite the truth. Der Rosenkavalier and The Magic Flute might take place on the same stage in the same week, but they clearly don\u2019t take place in the same place. Of course, in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1188,709,860,1049,1189,1172,1173,1174,771,763,98],"class_list":["post-7734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-opion-life-as-a-performing-musician","tag-april-fredrick","tag-david-stout","tag-debussy","tag-english-symphony-orchestra","tag-eso","tag-jane-eyre","tag-john-joubert","tag-opera","tag-richard-wagner","tag-somm-recordings","tag-strauss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7734"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7740,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7734\/revisions\/7740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}