Herculean effort: Paul Bunyan at Ally Pally
Paul Bunyan
English National Opera
Alexandra Palace Theatre
Circle G5, £20 (moved Stalls R4)
11 May 2019
ENO page
ENO makes a welcome musical case for the problematic Paul Bunyan in a production impressively resized from the teeny Wilton’s to the mega Ally Pally. Director Jamie Manton may not fully succeed in the Herculean task to make Paul Bunyan likeable, but he and all involved do their darnedest and the results are entertaining, engaging and occasionally moving, even if – well, problematic.
I lay Paul Bunyan’s problems pretty squarely at Auden’s door. He got opera librettos triumphantly right a decade later in The Rake’s Progress but his first effort is an ungainly clever-clogs garble that seems to seek to lure you with its crass Americana while brazenly laughing in your face that you’d be such a dupe. There is some good stuff in there but Auden giddily pulls the rug from under himself and us so many times that the resulting somersaults quash my desire to keep playing along. ‘Oh for goodness sake’ becomes my Paul Bunyan mantra.
I should no doubt be more grateful to Auden, as his words, ill-fitting for an opera though I deem them to be, must have played a part in inspiring and directing Britten’s music. Judged on music alone I think, or hope, that Paul Bunyan would hold a firmer place in Britten’s operatic canon than it does in reality; while not approaching the vision of Peter Grimes, a more dramatic holder of the ‘first opera’ title, there is nevertheless so much in Paul that is of staggering beauty, that delights my soul – at least until the Auden irritation kicks in.
All involved in this production carry a candle for Britten’s music but my strongest enthusiasm is for the chorus: particularly in the opening as they sing of America’s great untouched forests, distributed among the audience, exposed but ardently unafeared. The surprisingly sound soloists also hold their own, particularly Elgan Llŷr Thomas as Jonny Inkslinger, Zwakele Tshabalala as Hot Biscuit Slim, Alex Otterburn as Hel Henson and Benson Wilson as John Shears. Presumably for insoluble reasons the orchestra is sadly hidden behind a curtain, but I was nevertheless very impressed by them and conductor James Henshaw, who is remarkably commanding and assured given everything takes place behind his back.
Manton and designer Camilla Clarke place the frame of modernity of the opera in the consumerist 1950s, an era with very different visual signifiers from the opera’s period (1941) and from the story’s frontier setting. I assume the rationale was to try to make sense of Auden’s scattergun satire but for me it exacerbates the problem rather than meliorates it. As some kind of hardline Britten purist I also felt disapproving of the casting of the single narrator as three chickens (I guess?) who somewhat mysterious get plucked and cooked at the end. Still, Manton and Clarke’s approach fills the looming space of Ally Pally, cheerily channels the energy of the cast and in all puts the framework in place for an enjoyable evening. If only I didn’t feel a bit sorry for ENO, saddling themselves with yet another unfillable London theatre!
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