The London premiere of George Benjamin’s Into The Little Hill brings this acclaimed work to ROH2 and the Linbury Studio, in a new production directed by John Fulljames.
Into The Little Hill sees two singers act out Martin Crimp’s sometimes disturbing interpretation of the fable of the Pied Piper, in which a stranger first charms away from a town its plague of rats before taking its children when the debt is not settled. The music, from angular to alluring, has been applauded for its beauty and originality, not least in Benjamin’s characteristic use of orchestral colour. In this production of Into The Little Hill the composer conducts the London Sinfonietta.
A strong complement comes in Harrison Birtwistle’s dramatic pastoral Down By The Greenwood Side, a landmark of contemporary music theatre first seen in 1969, which follows on from the revival of Punch And Judy staged in 2008. A traditional English Mummers play – set as a spoken text by Michael Nyman – has Father Christmas introduce St George to do battle with Bold Slasher, but this is interleaved with the ballad of the Cruel Mother and her two abandoned children.
The comedy of the mummers and the macabre nature of the recurring ballad play out the cycles of death and renewal with Birtwistle’s distinctive sense of intensity and drama.
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