I was at the Sheldonian concert and thought it was wonderful. I am biased as I have been a fan of the book for 30 years, but this really was an enjoyable evening with excellent performances all round. Leon Berger was particularly outstanding as Weston/the Un-man. The youngster who sang the voice of an eldil towards the end was also outstanding, but there were no duff performances from chorus, principals or orchestra.
As discussed, this was really a delayed premiere of an opera which was afflicted with incredible bad luck at the original opening, and probably does need some tinkering with the libretto and reduction by about 40 minutes as it really is rather long. This revision should have happened after the initial premiere, but due to C S Lewis's death and the copyright issues this didn't happen.
I can't wait for the recording to become available. I believe there will be a market for this opera once tidied up and shortened - I am a long term C S Lewis fan, Perelandra is my favourite of his books, but I only discovered this opera had ever existed a few months ago. Other CSL fans - and there are a lot of us - will be interested when they find out. This should be on at the BBC proms.
As discussed, this was really a delayed premiere of an opera which was afflicted with incredible bad luck at the original opening, and probably does need some tinkering with the libretto and reduction by about 40 minutes as it really is rather long. This revision should have happened after the initial premiere, but due to C S Lewis's death and the copyright issues this didn't happen.
I can't wait for the recording to become available. I believe there will be a market for this opera once tidied up and shortened - I am a long term C S Lewis fan, Perelandra is my favourite of his books, but I only discovered this opera had ever existed a few months ago. Other CSL fans - and there are a lot of us - will be interested when they find out. This should be on at the BBC proms.