Bonesong / Unknown Position is a double-bill of contemporary operas (by Kate Whiteley, Joe Snape, Emma Hogan, Finn Beames), darkly evocative and musically brutal - melodrama at its best.

With these two works, Cambridge Opera Society succeeds in showing how opera can command both a naturalist portrayal of a modern psychological condition (objectum sexuality, Unknown Position), and a grand allegorical form with the violence of a Greek Tragedy (Bonesong).

Unknown Position tells the story of a woman passionately in love with a chair. While such a theme risks being ridiculous, both the subtlety of Louise Kemeny's performance and the elegant choreography brought to the piece by director Finn Beames ensure that what might become farce remains poignant and thrilling.

The action takes place in front of an orchestra. The music becomes a looming chorus, overwhelming the figures on stage as it cajoles their stories forward. The stage is split; there is a small table to the right and a spotlit chair to the left in front of a perspex screen. A woman and her lover are fighting. Gwilym Bowen's rich tenor voice pleads and whines with Louise Kemeny's bell-like anger. The coldness between them is agonised; the dissonant score rises and falls cruelly. However, while Louise Kemeny's acting is finely-tuned and her hatred of her human lover well-observed and accurately expressed, her voice fails to have the soaring impact of her stage-partner's in their first encounters.

As Louise Kemeny moves from her partner to the true object of her desire, this changes. Entangled with the chair in a graceful balletic dance, spotlit, she becomes warm and feminine. Her voice pierces the still, tantalising calm of the score. However, the scene becomes truly engaging with Gwilym Bowen's monologue. As he explains, building up into an eerie chromatic phrase - 'Did you know, Alice Woolf is in love with a fairground ride?' - his shimmering tone compels against the swarming power of the orchestra, creating an awed, sonorous stillness with the repetition of the phrase.

Bonesong is the longer of two pieces, and follows after a short break. The curtain opens on three wooden spotlit boxes laid with brown parcels tied-up in string. Georgia Gray's set is simple, effective. A carcass hangs, harshly lit, in front of a clear plastic curtain, the sort which might be seen in an abattoir freezer. From all around, the crunch of bones and a sickening rasping noise can be heard. As the orchestra starts, these two sound-worlds collide. Once again, of the three singers it is Gwilym Bowen who stands out for his gut-wrenching demonic ferocity and his excellent diction. Josephine Stephenson feels weaker than her co-actors, but has a nice voice - its innocent weakness suits her role as the little sister, doomed to be eaten.

'Beautiful thing' sings Gwilym Bowen, a sort of Golem, writhing and squirming. The evil he brings on stage is almost touchable. As Josephine Stephenson's character sleeps, she is torn to pieces and her skeleton blown on like a pipe. The music becomes satanic. Credit must go to Neil Amin-Smith for his masterful handling of a high and sustained violin solo; its ominous calm unsettles against the visceral horror of the surround-sound grinding noises; a shiver is sent down the spine.

Louise Kemeny shines in her final solo. As her character smears herself with her sister's blood, the swimming and spinning quality of her final high notes - which burgeon and swell - is phenomenal. When the lights go down, there's a residual feeling of horror and shock, part of a catharthis.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Gwilym Bowen - Tenor. Louise Kemeny - Soprano. Josephine Stephenson - Soprano.

Musician Credits: (alpha order): Neil Amin-Smith - Violin 1. Jude Carlton - Percussion. Oscar Dubb - Electronics. Joe Fisher - Viola. Louie Kirkman - Double Bass. Matt Letts - Trumpet. Edward Liddall - Piano. Rebecca Minio-Paluello - Violin 2. Calypso Nash - Clarinet. Adam Powell - Flute. Joe Snape - Electronics. Louise Snape - Trumpet. Christopher Stark - Conductor. Conrad Steel - Cello. Fiona Wilkinson - Horn.

Company Credits: Unknown Position: Composer – Kate Whiteley. Librettist - Emma Hogan. Bonesong: Composer - Joe Snape & Kate Whiteley. Librettist - Finn Beames. (both productions): Director - Finn Beames. Lighting Designer - Simon Gethin Thomas. Sound Designer - (uncredited). Set Designer - Georgia de Grey. Technical Operator - (uncredited). Stage Manager - Claudia Parkes. Producer - Edmund Irwin-Singer. Company - Cambridge University Opera Society. Website - www.carmen-elektra.com.

END

(c) Rebecca Gibson 2011

reviewed 5 August 2011 / C venues, Edinburgh, UK