Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne, Sunday 2 April 2017

New Sussex Opera have done so much good work over the years, and given us so many splendid evenings of opera, it is a shame not to be more enthusiastic about this most recent production. The fault is not theirs – unless one blames them for choosing it in the first place – but Delius’ folk tale really does not carry enough dramatic weight to keep the audience engaged across the six scenes. That the final two scenes come slightly more alive, and include the finest music of the piece with the Walk to the Paradise Garden, does little to make up for the lack of musical variety or characterisation in the first four.

Thankfully there is some fine playing from the ensemble under Lee Reynolds and the chorus makes an impression in the little it has to do. Luke Sinclair sings Sali with a sense of style and frequent lyrical beauty, but his presence too often seemed detached from the reality around him. Kirsty Taylor-Stokes’ Vrenchen was equally positive vocally but her costume and demeanour too often made her look simplistic rather than naïve. This may have been an idea of the director Susannah Waters to play them like Hansel and Gretel rather than Pelleas and Melisande, but if so it did not really fit with the stark utilitarianism of the setting. The fathers were strongly cast with Robert Gildon and Geoffrey Moses bringing tension to the opening minutes but this is lost in the miasma Delius creates around them, draining the potential tension of the relationship.

Ian Beadle’s Dark Fiddler – here played like the Sandman and as such giving yet another echo of Hansel – was strongly sung and as credible as the score would allow.

There was an excellent programme – not always the case with smaller companies – from which I note that they will bring us Gluck’s Orfeo next year. Now that will be worth going to – no problem with that being a masterpiece.

St Mary in the Caste, Hastings, Saturday 1 April 2017

A Mozart concert and my immediate thought was – where are the oboes? But then one realises that, somewhat surprisingly, Mozart does not use them in either the 39^th Symphony or in the Requiem. This was not the only factor which united the two works, for both are late and reflective of the whole of Mozart’s output.

The evening opened with the 39^th Symphony, the balance seeming at first to highlight the Haydnesque influences rather than the more prophetic hints of Beethoven which follow in the yearning, near soulful lines from the bassoons, which flower so beautifully in St Mary’s acoustic. The strings were not to be outdone by the brass, coming into their own in the finale with tight, bouncing figuration which held the dance rhythms throughout.

After the interval came an impassioned reading of the Requiem. The chorus were in excellent voice here and the rhythms were crisp and clean throughout. There was a real sense of bite in the Rex tremendae, an empathic sensitivity in the Lacrimosa and joy in the Sanctus. Phrasing was finely crafted and balance throughout excellent.

The four young soloists were both well balanced across their voices and finely characterised. There was an urgency and lift from soprano Emily Bradley and tenor Wagner Moreira, with warmth and character from mezzo Ayaka Tanimoto and bass Dan D’Souza.

Between these works we heard Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna whose five movements are drawn from the Latin Requiem Mass. His writing is strongly romantic in feel and the opening section in particular creates long waves of musical sound which overlap and float across each other, flooding the church with wonderful sound. He often asks the chorus to sing unaccompanied which puts more weight on them to hold the pitch, though a splendid central section draws on a solo cello for support to superb effect.

If, in the end, it proves to be rather too long for the quality of its invention, the final sections pull together well and the conclusion is effective and fitting.

There was no text or translation available in the programme, though this did have the side effect of ensuring everyone was listening attentively.

Marcio da Silva, as we have become accustomed, directed the whole with authority and precision. He is a real asset to Hastings.

The next concert in the series – and another first for Hastings Philharmonic – is at the same venue on Saturday 20 March when the orchestra will perform Brahms Second Symphony.