#Britten paul bunyan johnny inkslinger how to#
One of the challenges for a director is how to present the oversizedĮponymous hero who never actually appears on stage. Hyperbolic, competitive rivalry for Tiny’s attention. The lumberjacks’ chorus in Act 1 in Act 1 - which utilised many a hackneyedīroadway gag to cheerful effect - the Quartet of Swedes, and the loggers’ Is a genuine ‘company’ work, with the soloists coming forth from theĬhorus, and the ensemble numbers were the highpoint. TheĬhoreography was slick, particularly given the limits of the stage space this Which Britten shows off his prowess as a master of pastiche and parody. Of a narrative thread, there are lots of terrific individual musical numbers in Steel has decided to capitalise upon the fact that, while there is not much Resplendent pinnacle, ‘O great day of discovery’, in Act 2. Number, the ETO chorus was impressively resonant, foreshadowing an even more ‘Young Trees’ (shorter burgeoning planks). Overturned in this opening ensemble by the ambition and energy of the impatient (represented by tall timbers of wood), before man’s arrival on earth, is This is the point - for the soporific way of life of the ‘Old Trees’ Of the score, the unison chorus seemed a little slow to get going but maybe Singing the limpid, swinging motif that is one of the few uniting elements Table-top routine that would not have shamed Fred Astaire. Ward) was keen to get into the act, excitedly executing a polished In the manner of a slick Broadway musical. Orthodox Loggers’ Cabin, and moving swiftly between the multifarious numbers The narrative thread is rather weak and the allegory at times ambiguous.įor this ETO production, director Liam Steel and set/costume designer Annaįleischle opted to keep things fairly simple, housing all the action in an Succession, with the odd extravagant Donizettian-duet thrown into the mix but Gilbert and Sullivan comedy - each idiom following the next in quick Britten’s score is an appealing medley ofĭeft pastiches - blues quartet, country and western ballad, jazz lament, Uplifting parable and symbolic inferences both light-hearted Broadway gags and It is a challenge to make something coherent of a work which offers both an Piotr Lempa (Ben Benny) and Stuart Haycock (Sam Sharkey) Need to tolerate ‘difference’ and protect the ‘outsider’. But it also hinted at the challenges ahead for a nation built uponĪ Dream, as its people learn that they must balance individual choice with the Offering intended to confirm their artistic credentials for AmericanĬitizenship. Pioneering lumberjack - might be seen as a naÔve attempt to beguile: an Paul Bunyan - the ‘choral operetta’ that Britten and AudenĬreated on the quintessentially American theme of the legend of the eponymous Premiered in May 1941 in the Brander Matthews Hall at Columbia University, I think it wouldn’t be too much oversimplifying the situation to say that many of us young people at the time felt that Europe was more or less finished … I went to America and felt that I would make my future there.’ ( Letters from a Life, vol.1, eds.
He went to America, I think it was ‘38, early ‘39, and I went soon after.
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