Friday 29th June 2012
John Dee Paul Hilton
Katherine Dee Anna Dennis
Kelley Christopher Robson
Walsingham Steven Page
Elizabeth Melanie Pappenheim
Young Dee Rebecca Sutherland
Young Katherine Victoria Couper
Jane Clemmie Sveaas
(OK, I'm very late, breathlessly trying to catch up - too many distractions going on but this was too good to forget!!!)
Seems like almost a lifetime ago I booked my ticket for Dr Dee having been seriously kicking myself that I missed out on Damon Albarn's first venture into opera with Monkey: Journey to The West, I was not going to miss another opportunity in this collaboration with Rufus Norris producing. I was not alone, a Gorillaz fan I found myself sitting beside an equally excited Blur fan who had purchased his ticket around same time as me, comparing notes at interval and at the end we both went away well impressed with what we had seen and wanting more.
A bit of background here with Damon Albarn and others collaborating in the production talking around the time of the 2011 opening
Having never heard of John Dee until the opera first emerged as part of Manchester's 2011 Festival I was fascinated by what I was hearing about this amazing man, an alchemist, who lived at the time of Queen Elizabeth I and was held in high regard by Elizabeth herself.
We start with a raven, flying out from one of the unoccupied boxes on to the stage above the on-stage musicians - the orchestra itself being seated in the usual orchestra pit. Now I must describe the area in which these on-stage musicians occupy, in short it looks something like a wooden veranda that has become detached from a house, a stage within stage, the musicians sitting inside, to the left hand side there are a few steps that descend to the stage, here sits Damon Albarn with his guitar-the raven lands on the roof. At present this stage within a stage is occupying the full lower third of the stage. The music begins and Damon Albarn sings the first song of the opera, Apple Carts which has a haunting folk-like quality to it.
As he sings various characters, one at a time begin to walk on from stage left atop this veranda. Firstly a punk rocker with bright pink hair, followed by a city gent, then cricketer W G Grace, a suffragette .... aha, we are going back in time with Nelson, Charles I, this is England, our England. As each of the characters walks across the roof of this 'veranda', they walk to the back, position themselves facing forward each in turn then leans back and plunges off the back of the stage as the next character then appears - great hilarity all round at this! After the last character has gone off the back the veranda itself starts to slowly rise above the stage and from beneath appears a dying, elderly John Dee in his sick bed which is pushed by his loving daughter Katherine who perambulates around the stage with her father's deathbed - we then go a bit further back in time as from underneath this bed a short while after we see emerge a young John Dee as the older Dee and his daughter leave the stage.
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| The young Dee (Rebecca Sutherland) hungry for knowledge |
Books, the theme now is books as we start to now move forward in time as the young Dee is surrounded by books of ever-increasing size as he grows up - the books take on almost the style of Elizabethan ruff collars and to my mind are portraying the young Dee thirst for knowledge and learning, moving forward through time now we see Dee was growing up with, through his father's association, close links to the court of Queen Elizabeth. The books increase in size as Dee grows older, actors, one at each end rush across the stage with the very largest man-size books, all the time Dee is ensconced in reading and learning, oh yes we see John Dee is very hungry for knowledge.
Now at the court Dee he is consulted by the Queen's secretary, Walsingham to discern a fitting and auspicious date for the Queen's coronation, consulting the stars a date is set and Dee also finds himself a wife, Jane. Into his life also comes the mysterious Kelley (a countertenor, woweeee, I've been developing a thing for coutertenors these last few months!).
A fabulous part of the visuals for this production are the video projections we see, as pictured here below - characters and symbols display on screen - when depicting the strange project Dee and Kelley set themselves to discover the language of angels, Enochian, consorting with both angels and maybe demons too in their somewhat dubious quest - charlatans I would dub the both of them, or Dee duped by Kelley - eh - which? Must do more reading/investigating of Dee's life, appetite well and truly whetted by this venture. This wonderful opera - yes I found it rather wonderful, or wondrous even, magical, mystical - is a great way to tell a story of a fascinating character in our history, here is Damon Albarn saying, hey take a look at this guy, setting it to music-wonderful range of musical styles - and song, the singing of the characters and Damon Albarn himself as he sets the scene of England at the time and narrates the story as we go, combined with the previously mentioned video projections all combine to create an immensely moving portrayal of John Dee.
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| Video display for the scene in which Dee and Kelley attempt to discover the language of angels |
Duped he must have been to some degree by Kelley as he convinces Dee that an angel has told him he must be allowed to share Dee's wife - mega duped I would say! From rising star at the court we share in many of the highs and lows of Dee's life as he becomes ostracised by the mighty and powerful of the day we return to where we found him at the start, dying, as the veranda lowers back to the stage and Damon Albarn steps onto the stage at Dee's death.
I enjoyed this immensely for what was produced, a delightful production - no sense in stopping to linger on what it could or should have been, I was thoroughly entertained and entranced by what I saw and am now hoping that further opportunities to re-visit this will present themselves in the future, I would definitely go see it again but with the busy butterfly-like life Damon Albarn leads I think he will perhaps wish to move on from Dee and it would not be the same without him, although I do hope that he will make a return to the world of opera at some point in the future and am sure he will have something else just as fascinating for us.
