Next autumn The Royal Opera in Copenhagen celebrates the 201-year anniversary of Andersen's birth with a new opera by Elvis Costello. So far there is a song cycle composed of ten key arias. It tells the story of Andersen's infatuation with Jenny Lind and the rivalry with the American humbug king PT Barnum, who also sought to win the singer's favour.
Andersen was attracted to unattainable women; Jenny Lind was the most unattainable of all. Some researchers have explained it by saying that he wanted to hide his homosexuality, others have concealed it. Elvis Costello speculates, however, not in any explanation, he is fascinated instead of the draw.
He calls his opera The Secret Songs. Until last Saturday the songs were also secret. Not even Tina Turner has sung them, as Elvis Costello said himself, when along with Swedish soprano Gisela Stille, percussionist Bent Clausen, blower and bassist Bebe Risenfors, cellist Amit Sen and old partner, pianist Steve Nieve he featured songs in a concert version at the Royal Opera.
Elvis Costello has always been a talented composer, from the early days of pop (through the passage of careless once too often called punk) to partnerships with the Brodsky Quartet, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, Anne Sofie von Otter and Burt Bacharach for the songs he wrote with Diana Krall. Elvis Costello has also composed ballet music. That he is now taking the step to opera is not particularly surprising.
Of course, the whole character is of a work-in-progress, even if the set design anchors the performance narrative in the 1800s. It does nothing. Rarely have we seen the composition process so exposed, as when Gisela Stille is supreme in wrestling down the technical difficulties in "The Misfit," where Liverpool's port in 1850 constitutes the setting. Or when Elvis Costello himself, despite his limited vocal resources, gives a clear picture of how it will sound when trained singers take on Andersen's and Barnum's roles. Or when Steve Nieve with his wide piano gives an idea of how grand orchestral parts will be. The concerto nature of work-in-progress also makes it easier to accept Costello's voice sometimes cracking. We do not hear a concert by Elvis Costello, we see him demonstrate the material for an opera.
It can be a brilliant one. Costello has written a series of shimmering melodies. The driven pasticher he is, he pulls himself nor to refine the emotional and expressive modes. When Barnum presents its attractions in American Humbug (Jenny Lind as well as George Washington's hundred sixty annuals slave), the mood is hilarious, an amazing opera vaudeville. When Costello accepts Anderson's coat, he commutes between dreamy and melancholic, sometimes tearful moods. Jenny Lind's parties in places spectacularly beautiful, and they develop even more by the close collaboration between Costello and Stille. Of course I'm fascinated also by the breaks between Costello's cracked voice and Gisela Stille's exquisite soprano.
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