Some of the performances at the Waterford New Music Week are reviewed by Michael Dervan
Waterford New Music Week is a concentrated annual reminder that new music is alive and well at the music department of Waterford Institute of Technology.
This year's major undertaking was the première of Lily's Labyrinth, a new opera for children by Marian Ingoldsby with a libretto by Ben Hennessy. The work was scheduled for five performances at Garter Lane Arts Centre, but excited such interest that, even before the opening night on Monday, an extra performance was announced for Saturday night.
The story of young Lily (Stephanie Foley) is a story of reading and imagination. The taunts of her young companions, who tease her mercilessly about her fascination with the worlds of ancient myths, are mitigated by the interest of sporty Tommy (Gavin Walsh). He finds himself not only attracted to Lily but also drawn into her acted-out fantasies, which are given shape in Liam Meagher's production by the members of the Waterford Boy Singers and Waterford Larks, a sea of young bodies, whose presence dominates the arena stage of Garter Lane.
The message is clear - Lily ends up with boy and books - and Ingoldsby's music, with lots of rhythmic ostinato and patterning like children's rhymes, is essentially pragmatic in its momentary catchiness, if at times a little ambitious in the demands made of the young principals. Pragmatism is a feature, too, of James Wilson, this year's featured composer, who was the focus of Tuesday's events. There was a video screening of Anne Makower's 1986 RTÉ production of his overburdened, one-hander opera, Letters to Theo, an ambitious portrait of Vincent Van Gogh drawn exclusively though the artist's letters to his brother.
This was followed by a whistle-stop musical guide with recorded extracts, introduced by the always self-deprecating composer with Anne Makower, and open to questions from the audience. And, finally, there was a concert of his music, presented by staff and friends of WIT in the Good Shepherd Chapel.
The music performed was mostly light, solo pieces for flute (Arlecchino played by Joe O'Farrell), organ (Diversions on a theme of Handel, by Eric Sweeney), clarinet (Three Playthings, by Stephen Mackey), and guitar (part of Solitaire, by Michael O'Toole), with a handful of songs (by mezzo soprano Anne Woodworth), and some Jimnopédies, short and sometimes technically elaborate tributes written by fellow composers for Wilson's 70th birthday (played by Una Kilcoyne and Malcolm Proud).
The best performances went to the most florid works, Malcolm Proud revelling in Gráinne Mulvey's avant-gardisation of Happy Birthday to You, and Eric Sweeney capturing vividly a cheeky streak in Wilson's output, which almost amounts to nose-thumbing. The playing masked the work's technical demands so that the music spoke with a careless-seeming airiness.
