It may seem a little mocking to treat a London audience in a January cold snap to a show set in the fairies’ forest on the longest night of the year, but the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment duly created magic at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Green lanterns, fairylights and clever lighting provided a simple staging in front of an enormous ensemble featuring the OAE, a community choir and dozens of children from schools enjoying the orchestra’s educational programmes. All came together for The Faerie Queen: Three Wishes, a piece centred around Purcell’s opera of the same name, with input from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and new music and lyrics written by composer James Redwood and director Hazel Gould.
It is a playful jumble of a work, which comes together to feel like a musically adept panto. Adam Courting’s Puck narrated a party in celebration of the Fairy Queen’s 365th birthday, while she decides to invite two grey suited humans failing to kick off their office romance and grants them three wishes. Puck and his sprites roll their eyes at human choices, and the course of love does not run smoothly.
Redwood’s own music is enjoyable, reminiscent of entertaining film music with some particularly elegant strings and shimmering use of the glockenspiel. There isn’t masses of Purcell to be found, but where it is, it’s tastefully performed. Redwood has also borrowed the Rondo from the composer’s Abdelazer, adding amped guitars and percussion in a lively reimagining.
As the humans, Kirsty Hopkins and Timothy Dickinson were charmingly awkward in their would-be romance, their voices matched strikingly with Hopkins’ bright upper register moving lightly over Dickinson’s silky bass. Hopkins’ “O let me weep”, in particular, was carefully ornamented and touching. As the Fairy Queen, Simone Ibbett-Brown sang with a luscious and emotive mezzo, and conveyed both mischief and flashes of danger effectively.
However, the real stars of the show were the school dance troupes, pulling out slick and impressive moves in a reinterpretation of the Pyramus and Thisbe play and at the party. Throughout the production, the children brought a palpable energy and enthusiasm, and the groups of primary school sprites brought scenes of fun physical theatre.
The dialogue dragged a little at points, and some sung words were lost with the choirs being positioned behind the orchestra and stage. You might also expect more volume from some of the more rousing moments, given the sheer size of the ensemble. But this was an uplifting and wholesome community piece that brought a freshness to centuries-old instruments, and ended with a heartening finale.
