Day 315
Judith Weir: A night at the Chinese opera
Soloists
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Andrew Parrott
I’ve been lucky enough to play several pieces by Judith Weir over the last few years. I’ve enjoyed exploring her music from the inside. What strikes me most is the clarity of her orchestral writing - her ear for sonorities is quite superb.
This opera was in many ways Weir’s breakthrough piece. It has so many facets. There is real drama in the outer acts and real fun in the parody of a Chinese opera in the middle act. And Weir has a natural affinity with word setting (she wrote the libretto herself) and the dramatic pacing is beautifully judged. Any British opera composer is inevitably in the shadow of Benjamin Britten and clearly his influence clearly shines though the score. But in many ways the stronger resonances are Tippett and Birtwistle.
But ultimately Weir has her own voice and this is a major achievement for a first opera by a composer in her early thirties. I look forward to getting to know more of her operas - there are several to go at.
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