Catherine Dubosc   The child
Juanita Lascarro   The fire/The princess/The nightingale
Nicole Tibbels     The bat/The owl/A shepherdess
Annie Vavrille     Mother/The cup/The dragonfly
Cynthia Clarey     The bergere/A shepherd/The white cat/The squirrel
Jean-Paul Fouchecourt
                   The teapot/Arithmetic/The frog
Riccardo Simonetti The grandfather clock/The black cat
Rene Schirrer      The armchair/A tree

Andrew Davies      Conductor

BBC Singers
Finchley Children's Music Group

BBC Symphony Orchestra

This peformance was part of Spirit Garden, a season devoted to Takemitsu
and Ravel. The nominal rationale for combining the two is that Ravel was a
major influence on Takemitsu, but that wasn't obvious from the rest of
tonight's programme, which include Ravel's Alborada del gracioso and La
Valse, and Takemitsu's Marginalia and Wind Horse.

Marginalia has some sections in triple time, interspersed with intense sine
misura passages with fluid texture (evoking the idea of the water's edge
and also calling into question what is the margin and what is the text or
body). Wind Horse is a setting for unaccompanied choir of two contrasting
erotic poems, interwoven with a vocalised "African" lullaby and other
themes evoking a ceremony of divination by following the wind.

Beyond a general tone-poem approach in both works, I couldn't hear or infer
much of Ravel, though both were interesting at first hearing, and Wind
Horse was particularly well received. I suspect that Ravel is in there
mainly because not enough people would go to a mainly Takemitsu season,
even though his music is accessible, and exotic only in an unthreatening
way. (Preferable to Tan Dun based on what I've heard so far of both, but
very roughly in the same class programming-wise.)

The premium cast of singers and orchestra in L'enfant seemed to be having a
great time. Catherine Dubosc gamely dressed up in long shorts and ankle
socks as the child, and still looked pretty stylish. Her singing was also
stylish, with a rich tone but little vibrato. She didn't really do the
nastiness of the child after the opening scene, but nor does the music.
Juanita Lascarro was ethereal as the fairy-tale princess. I think she's one
to watch -- she seems to be just doing it, but she was an entirely
plausible Fennimore in Der Silbersee a couple of years ago, which suggests
a bit of theatrical range.

Cythia Clarey and Riccardo Simonetti did a great cat fight/courtship (the
programme notes that Ravel was particular good at cat noises himself). And
Clarey and Rene Schirrer were good and clumpy as the abused furniture.

The highlight of the silly stuff, though, was Jean-Paul Fouchecourt and
Annie Vavrille as the (English) teapot and (Chinese) cup, singing a duet in
comic English/Chinese gibberish, with strong French accent. Fouchecourt
also appeared briefly en grenouille (again) in the second part, and as the
little man who embodies arithmetic, torturing the child with repeated sums
and problems. He is wonderfully theatrical, regardless of his singing,
which seemed fine tonight.

The second half calms down, as the child beings to understand the feelings
of the animals. The BBC singers and orchestra delivered a moving conclusion
as the animals respond to the child's act of kindness, when he bandages the
wound of a small squirrel who has been hurt, and struggle to return him to
Maman, who they understand only as his hope of healing for himself.

Ravel's short opera seems to be the only begetter of a lot of Disneyeque
anthropomorphic guff with music, but in itself it is a delight. The things
and animals that start talking to the child, who is in a hysterical state
after a contretemps with Maman, are the way they are as projections of the
child's feelings about the world. In his strange state, he progresses from
projecting his feelings on things to projecting them on animals, which can
(appear to) respond, and so learns about his own interaction with the world
and other sentient beings. Ravel's pastiche musical treatments are deeply
expressive as well as splendid showing off.The music is always within the
limits of what a child could believe the things around him to be feeling
once he realises that his actions can cause others to feel.