Jonathan Bennett commenting on Giving birth:
Monday, March 25, 2013 at 10:48

The reason I googled David Bruce today (I had never heard of him before) and posted this comment is because I was a member of the lucky audience at The Firework Maker's Daughter on Saturday night. It really was an amazing event and I want to thank composer and collaborators, and spread the word that this is a piece not to miss.

What I found extraordinary - almost unbelievable - was the way David Bruce's writing fell so naturally and completely into the operatic genre. Even some of the greats are at times self-consciously operatic, but right from the beginning the audience completely accepted that this was a story that had to be told in this way. The music, the words, the stage direction were all integrated in sucking us in to being totally involved in what was going on. It is impossible to imagine that anyone who goes along won't love it.

Thinking back at the end, I would be intrigued to know what the opera would feel like from the musical point of view alone, on CD or if Radio 3 broadcast it (and I hope they do). I suspect that the flow of musical emotion that worked so well on stage would stand on its own too. However you would listen to it in a different way, I think you would become more aware that operatic conventions are present (arias, recitatives, ensembles, etc) and the way they are used to build and release tension, create humorous relief, and portray the characters and their journey.

However it was the total performance which convinced so well, so in that sense the credit is wider than the composer's. The five singers gave it their all, but the fact that they could do so without any sense of strain or sounding uncomfortable does reflect the musical achievement. The direction was very clever, allowing development of characters even though the same singers doubled up to create other parts, and with ingenious use of shadow puppetry to allow some of the less stageable parts of the story to fit seamlessly with the action acted out. It is notable that it creates a part for a countertenor which completely lacks the feeling of artifice which often goes with that voice.

The programme mentions that David Bruce was in a way inspired by Magic Flute, and some of the references are explicit - for example there are trials of fire and water. However the real similarity is the way it sucks the audience in to a world which is magical and surreal, combining a moral allegory with issues of relationships and moments of witty humour. In the same way it surely deserves to enter standard repertory - and I would like to think that organisers of chamber opera ensembles around the world take notice and think of scheduling it.

The opera is based on a children's story, and advertised as suitable for children of 8+ quite a few of whom were in the audience (including my own daughter). But in a sense it isn't a children's opera, any more than Hansel and Gretel or La Cenerentola are, it is a grown up opera which is totally compelling for its audience even the younger ones. There was not the slightest sign of any fidgeting among those children who were probably past bedtime at the end - but I think it is just as remarkable that there was no fidgeting among the adults. How often is that true for a 2 hour piece of modern classical music?