PICTURE A DAY LIKE THIS - REVIEW OF 2023 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

Picture A Day Like This is a one-act opera that had its premiere at the cozy Theatre du jeu de paume as part of the Aix-En-Provence Festival. It is the work of Martin Crimp a man of the theatre who wrote the libretto and George Benjamin a man of music who composed the score.

The opera has a simple and appealing story. An ordinary woman, wearing a very ordinary dress steps out and tells the audience in English that “no sooner had my child started to speak whole sentences than he had died.” It is a startling opening before we have heard a single note of music. It is a shocking personal tragedy, and the woman cannot accept her child’s death. Flowers and crops grow from the cold earth, why can her child not be revived? 

She is told that if she can find a happy person before nightfall and get a button from his sleeve her child will return to life. She sets out in search a happy person and sees a couple of lovers in the rapture of lovemaking, and she surmises that they must be truly happy people. She asks for a button, but the lovers soon start arguing about his numerous affairs, including with some of her friends. They are not happy.

She then meets an Artisan (John Brancy), a collector and a man who seems to have everything including loads of buttons. But as she speaks with him, the artisan appears not to be all there and as the scene continues, she realizes that the man is unhinged. Not an acceptable source for a button as a token of happiness.

 The Woman and the Lovers. Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez

She then meets a Composer, sung by Anna Prohaska (and here George Benjamin may be pulling our leg a bit) who is rushing to go into rehearsal of his new opera. She tries to explain to him the urgency of her state, but the composer is not impressed with her. His work is more important than her fate or her situation is not what it seems. No button.

The Woman reaches the pint of despair and in a powerful aria “Dead stems of flowers come to life again” she grieves that nothing has worked in her quest for a happy person.

Her penultimate encounter is with the Collector (John Brancy), a man who has everything in the world except a woman. He promises to give the Woman all that a person could want. She turns him down, but he is sufficiently moved to open a door that leads into a garden where the Woman meets the beautiful Zabelle who is sympathetic but also aloof. The Woman wants to share Zabelle’s happiness, but she is refused. Zabelle tells the Woman her story and disappears. The Woman ends up with a button in her hand, but I will not disclose the details of the end of the opera.

The Woman ins despair. Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez

The Woman is sung by French mezzo soprano Marianna Crebassa in fine voice able to express the unbearable pain of a mother who has lost a child and the passionate hope of finding a way of bringing her child back to life. We hear the beauty of her voice and the pain and hope as she searches for a happy person.

Norwegian soprano Beate Mordal sings the role of Lover 1 whom we see in the midst of passionate lovemaking with Lover 2 that turns into an unpleasant argument, and she is the also Composer. 

Canadian countertenor Cameron Shahbazi sings the passionate and then angry Lover 2 and the Composer’s assistant. As Lover 2 he is a serial philanderer who has sex with men and women, including a friend of Lover 1. What is worse, he reaches out to the Woman for sex and Lover 1 tells him to take his polyamory and go to hell. They are not happy.  

The interesting roles of Artisan and Collector are done by American baritone John Brancy. With a coat over his shoulders and a three-peace suit he is every inch the patrician but not quite all there mentally.

Anglo-Austrian soprano Anna Prohaska sings the role of the mysterious Zabelle. She is a woman of poise and mystery with a lovely voice that leaves us with a mysterious conclusion to the opera.

Benjamin has composed some marvelous music reflecting the Woman’s emotional stages in her search for a happy person and the music reflects her encounters. It is sometimes lyrical, sometimes dissonant. Benjamin conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Daniel Jeanneteau and Marie-Christine Soma have teamed up as directors, set designers, lighting designers and dramaturgs of the production, and earned high marks. The gray set consisted of revolving and reflecting panels that are appropriate for the themes of the opera.

This is no small composition of a one-act opera. It was commissioned and produced by Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Opera national du Rhin, the Opera Comique, Les Theatre de la Ville de Luxembourg, Oper Koln and Teatro di San Carlo. With that many organizations able to cooperate, there is hope for opera and civilization.

__________

Picture A Day Like This by George Benjamin (music) and Martin Crimp (libretto) opened on July 5 and will be performed a total of nine times until July 23, 2023 on various dates at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com

 James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press.