LONDON - In one of the many large, bright rehearsal spaces of the new,
luxurious Royal Opera House, the final workshop run-through of a dramatic,
gripping, powerful new opera took place today, a month before its concert
version world premiere.

"The Blackened Man," composed by Will Todd, 32, to a libretto by Ben
Dunwell, 33, is a two-act opera running a bit over a couple of hours.
Its subject is a miners' strike in 1832, a murder, the conviction of
a wrong man, and his execution by hanging, after which the body is
"blackened" with tar, and displayed in a cage to serve as an example.

Two public performances are now set for Sept.  26 and 28, in Linbury
Studio Theatre, but no theater company has scheduled it for production
yet, in spite of its second-place award in Milan at the last Giuseppe
Verdi Competition, and Todd's track record of producing commercially
acceptable works, including "The Screams of Kitty Genovese."

Its current title may hold it back, but I think it will get into general
repertory, especially with small companies - although "Dead Man Walking"
has a dozen productions with large opera companies, so who knows?

Jake Heggie's work has a great deal in common with Todd's opera:  the grim
subject, a good libretto, drama well presented and sustained, music that's
both truly contemporary and yet not forbidding or off-putting.  Although
the two young composers don't know each other's works, it's rather amazing
how similar their works turned out.

Both "Blackened Man" and "Dead Man" are music dramas, rather than
dramas with music - the scores serve to underline, to move forward the
action, possibly not performable by themselves.  Todd and Heggie both use
"micro-melodies," very short themes, both are "melodic," but not providing
memorable phrases.

Most importantly, both are truly dramatic (rather than melodramatic), and
serve the text well, as vocal lines dominate.  Both also owe some (most
likely unintentional) debt to Menotti and, in choral numbers, to Britten.
Unlike Heggie, Todd hasn't mastered yet fully the art of shifting musical
moods smoothly; at times, the music remains the same while the text and/or
the action shifts.

I cannot remember the last workshop performance I attended with such
a excellent young cast.  It's understandable when a project is brought to
the "selling block" that its creators cannot afford first-class performers.
Even though "Blackened Man" has no sponsors at this time (Royal Opera
is making the rehearsal room available, nothing more, although it is
supporting the project in general), the cast is the finest money (at this
point) cannot buy.  Economy shows, on the other hand, in the two-piano
presentation of this richly orchestrated work.  Natalie Murray and Ralph
Woodward played well, but they couldn't substitute for the large-orchestra
Todd has written.

The voices, on the other hand, are certainly large enough already.  Two
young baritones were very impressive.  In the role of Ralph Armstrong (the
foreman, who is responsible for the murder that places his innocent friend
in the gibbet), Graeme Danby blew the walls down, quite without huffing and
puffing.  His is a dramatic, perhaps even heroic baritone, with plenty of
colors and shading.  In the title role, tenor David Barrell exhibited a
kind of music-theater (rather than "operatic") voice, which may be the
right thing for the role, which requires a thoughtful, non-showy
presentation.

In the lamentably short role of the magistrate who is killed, Mark Evans
made one sit up and notice - a powerful, forward-placed voice, compressed,
solid, scary-good.  Naomi Harvey's Isabella and, in the second act when she
finally had enough to do, Valerie Reid's Mrs.  Turner were excellent, even
in the setting of what was still a rehearsal.

Todd's choral music, already mentioned as "Brittenesque," is among his
strongest points as a composer.  The performance by the remarkable London
Voices ranged from good to stunning.

this being a small world, after all, who would show up as director but
david Edwards, subject of my last review in San Francisco before leaving
on this trip just a week ago- he did a fine job with the SF Opera Merola
Program's production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor." At this point,
Edwards seems to work on limited movement for a concert performance, but
if (or, rather, when) "Blackened Man" goes on to a fully-staged production,
the director will have has hands full - and a great opportunity ahead of
him.

Janos Gereben/SF
In Merry Old, to 9/1
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