A Tedious “Fashion Opera” from Alastair White

Another new Métier Records CD scheduled for release this coming Friday is “Robe,” a one-act opera in two parts composed by Alastair White. Strictly speaking, White calls this piece a “fashion opera,” which makes for an amusing impact on the Web page created by Amazon.com, which is currently processing pre-orders. As usual, Amazon provides hyperlinks under the header “Products related to this item.” Rather than directing the reader to other works by the composer or other recently composed operas, the links are in the nightgown/kimono category. Apparently, as keywords go, “fashion” is significantly more powerful than “opera.”

The release is an “original cast” album presenting the same performers that participated in the opera’s premiere performance during the Tête-à-Tête opera festival in London in August of 2019. Only four vocalists are involved. Mezzo Clara Kanter sings the role of Rowan, the Mapmaker, mezzo Rosie Middleton is Neachneohain the Official, soprano Sarah Parkin is the soldier Beira, and soprano Kelly Poukens takes the role of the Storyteller. In addition Middleton and Parkin sing the voice of the “superintelligence” EDINBURGH. Instrumentation is limited to piano (Ben Smith) and flute (Jenni Hogan).

At the premiere performance the four female vocalists were complemented by three male dancers: Charlie Nayler, Thomas Page, and Moses Ward. Their choreography was created by Max Gershon. The staging, directed by Gemma A. Williams and Pamela Schermann, also included two actors: Keith Chilvers and Megan Moran. As may be expected from the genre description, fashion was provided by Michael Stewart, Ka Wa Key, and Tommy Zhong, supplemented with make-up by Astrid Kearney assisted by the London School of Makeup Pro Team. In other words, while the musical resources suggest chamber music, the staging involves considerable more participants.

To the extent that this opera has a narrative, the plot is structured around the increasing blurring between the real and the virtual. This would probably be difficult to guess if one is only listening to the recording. However, I am not sure that listening to this recording while following the libretto in the accompanying booklet will be much of an improvement. A major problem is that, in the absence of staging, White’s score offers little in the way of a rhetorical framework that will guide the listener from the opening encounter with the four “human” characters to the concluding epilogue. The entire recording is a little under 66 minutes in duration, but White’s capacity of musical rhetoric is so abstruse that even the most attentive listener is likely to succumb to squirming before the first fifteen minutes have elapsed.

Following those “Products related to this item” hyperlinks is likely to be a more absorbing experience for those that try listening to this new recording.