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Claire McKenna (left) and Helen Bailey share the title role of Susannah |
Susannah: a feminist icon
PREVIEW - SUSANNAH-
HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SOCIETY
Upstairs at Gatehouse
HAMPSTEAD Garden Opera (HGO) is returning to the Gatehouse in Highgate this week to perform Susannah by American composer Carlisle Floyd.
Although rarely produced in this country, Susannah is one of the most performed operas in America, second only to Porgy and Bess.
Floyd, the son of a Methodist minister in South Carolina, wrote the words and music as a young composer in the early 1950s when McCarthyism was rampant, riding high on the back of intense fear of communism at the time.
But while the opera is concerned with community persecution of the individual, it also contains feminist themes not widely explored in popular culture at the time. Indeed, the portrayal of Susannah unbowed in the face of persecution ranks as one of the most powerful feminist icons in opera.
If only Tess had had her strength.
The opera’s story is drawn from the Apocryphal story of Susannah and the Elders.
Susannah Polk, an innocent girl, is targeted as a sinner in a small mountain town in the Southern state of Tennessee. She refuses to repent and is raped by a travelling preacher. She refuses to forgive him, and when the townspeople try to force her to leave, she defends her right to stay by threatening them with her gun.
“The emotional range is reflected in the music, by turns tender, tense, lyrical and sombre,” says HGO music director Oliver-John Ruthven. “The ear is constantly seduced by beautiful and memorable melodies, cheerful American folk-tunes and revivalist hymns.
“There are reminders of Copland, Menotti, Puccini, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams and even Bach. But these are skilfully absorbed into an overall palette that is clearly Floyd’s own.”
HGO is noted for striving to achieve professional standards within an amateur framework. It seeks to showcase singing talent by two sets of soloists.
Susannah is sung on alternate nights by Claire McKenna, 24, currently completing her studies at Trinity College of Music; and Helen Bailey, 26, starting at the Royal Academy of Music in September.
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