Eire Wexford Pageant Opera 2025 [2] – Delius, The Magic Fountain: Soloists, Refrain and Orchestra of Wexford Pageant Opera / Francesco Cilluffo (conductor). O’Reilly Theatre, Wexford, 25.10.2025. (RB)
The second of the principle operas to be carried out this week on the Wexford Opera Pageant was Delius’s The Magic Fountain. Delius wrote the work in 1895 after he returned to Europe from a sojourn within the Florida everglades. He deliberate the work to the be the primary in a collection of three operas that finally included Koanga and A Village Romeo and Juliet. The work lay uncared for for a century, and the primary stage efficiency solely occurred in Kiel in 1997.
The plot includes a Spanish explorer, Solano, who’s on a quest to search out the Fountain of Everlasting Youth. He’s shipwrecked at sea and washed ashore off the coast of Florida. He’s discovered by the younger Native American lady, Watawa, who brings him to her village. He seeks recommendation from a village elder after which a mystic concerning the Fountain of Youth and Watawa agrees to accompany him on his quest to search out it. She is initially hostile to Solano due to the affect colonial invaders have had on her folks however her emotions in the direction of him change and he or she finally falls in love with him. They discover the fountain and Watawa tries to dissuade Solano from ingesting from it as she is aware of it brings loss of life to those that are unprepared. When he’s undeterred, she drinks from it herself and dies in his arms. Solano follows her to her doom in a Wagnerian Liebestod.
I had combined emotions concerning the opera. Delius wrote the libretto himself, and he didn’t do a superb job; the plot is skinny, the dialogue picket and stilted and the characters superficial. He makes use of a big orchestra, and the music is lush and Romantic with chromatic harmonies and allusions to Wagner. As is commonly the case with Delius, the music is dreamlike and contemplative and he conjures up pastoral landscapes and moods. The orchestra dominates the proceedings to an uncommon diploma, and sections of the piece can virtually be seen as elaborate tone poems. The vocal traces are clear and lyrical, they usually type a part of the wealthy orchestral texture. Within the second act among the plot twists steered a change in momentum and dramatic tempo, however this didn’t occur, and the music remained contemplative and rhapsodic. Having stated that there have been just a few moments of excessive drama together with a shipwreck within the first act and a tribal battle dance within the second.
Christopher Luscombe and his crew made a superb job of staging this reasonably unwieldy work. Simon Higlett’s set consisted of the huge inside of a ship within the first act full with ladders, ropes and a lantern hanging overhead. Within the second act, the motion shifted to the Florida Everglades. The dense foliage was depicted by myriad inexperienced strips descending from the ceiling. Simon Higlett’s tribal costumes have been vibrant and attention-grabbing and applicable for the interval. The village seer, Talum Hadjo, ascended on to the stage via swirling mists by way of a trapdoor after which descended once more when he had completed giving his counsel to Watawa. The tribal battle dance within the second act was arresting and dramatic; it was properly choreographed by Amy Kissiov.
Axelle Saint-Cirel was spectacular within the function of Watawa and he or she sang with nice great thing about tone and readability all through. She was glorious in ratcheting up the dramatic pressure within the closing act. Dominick Valdés Chenes was additionally spectacular within the function of Solano singing with vibrancy and a transparent ringing tone. His voice had a heroic high quality marking him out as a possible future heldentenor. Kamohelo Tsotetsi gave a reasonably uneven efficiency within the function of the tribal chief, Wapanacki. His voice didn’t undertaking properly at varied factors and among the phrases within the decrease vocal register sounded ragged. Meilir Jones did a fairly good job in portraying the seer, Talum Hadjo, though he didn’t sound utterly snug with some parts of the vocal line. Seamus Brady executed his vocal entries properly within the minor function of the Spanish sailor. The Wexford Pageant Refrain have been spectacular initially of the opera on board the ship and within the tribal battle dance.
Francesco Cilluffo and the Wexford Pageant Orchestra brilliantly breathed life into Delius’s uber-Romantic rating. Within the opening prelude, strings and woodwind mixed to recommend a peaceful, balmy sea and there was significantly lovely enjoying from the woodwind, together with a sensuous melody from the cor anglais. Cilluffo whipped the decrease strings, brass and percussion up right into a livid climax throughout the storm scene on the finish of the primary act. The music within the second Act is quintessential Delius and Cilluffo and the WFO expertly conjured up pastoral landscapes, creating intoxicating, contemplative moods. Cilluffo efficiently ensured there was a superb stability between the singers and the big orchestral forces.
I used to be happy to have the chance to listen to this work. Nonetheless, regardless of some very positive singing and enjoying, this opera didn’t work due to the deficiencies within the libretto and the absence of dramatic pressure and momentum. Having stated that, It might be a disgrace for Delius’s rating to proceed to languish in obscurity given the standard of the orchestral writing. One potential resolution may be to extract among the orchestral interludes and to carry out them individually as an orchestral suite.
Robert Beattie
Featured Picture: Dominick Valdés Chenes (Solano) and Axelle Saint-Cirel (Watawa) © Pádraig Grant
Manufacturing:
Stage Director – Christopher Luscombe
Set and Costume designer – Simon Higlett
Co-Lighting designers – Daniele Naldi, Paolo Bonapace
Choreographer – Amy Share Kissiov
Refrain grasp – Andrew Synnott
Solid:
Solano – Dominick Valdés Chenes
Watawa – Axelle Saint-Cirel
Wapanacki – Kamohelo Tsotetsi
Talum Hadjo – Meilir Jones
A Spanish Sailor – Seamus Brady
