Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759-1824), roughly contemporary with Beethoven, was an Austrian musician. Highly acclaimed in her day as a pianist and composer, almost all her music is now lost although most of us are familiar with her Sicilienne. She was blind and, at the behest of her parents, underwent several appalling surgical attempts to restore her sight. She may have had affairs with both Mozart and Salieri \u2013 there are hints in letters. This is the story told by Errollyn Wallen\u2019s new opera with libretto by Nicola Werenowska.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s much more to it than that. This is production from Graeae, the theatre company \u2013 now 41 years old \u2013 which cultivates and champions the best in deaf, disabled and neurodivergent talent on the UK and international stages. The Paradis Files is Graeae\u2019s first opera and is the most inclusive show I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n
It starts with cast and band members introducing themselves orally and everything they say is signed integrally by someone on stage. They also wittily describe their clothes, size and the set. Each band member plays a flourish or a couple of bars on his or her instrument before disappearing upstage to the band area. Conductor, Andrea Brown says a few words too. Her podium is downstage right so that both band and cast can see her \u2013 or one of the on-stand monitor screens at the side of the stage. Once the show starts there\u2019s an overstage screen for captions which are artistically presented in a timely font, getting larger to stress, for instance, incredulity.<\/p>\n
The piece is scored for a cast of six who work with two performance interpreters whose presence brings another dimension. Max Marchewicz, for example, who identifies in the programme biographies as \u201ca queer, disabled, chronically ill and disabled person\u201d signs with moving, balletic sensitivity and I loved the blue hair. Meanwhile Chandrika Gopalakrishnan lithely makes every nuance clear, sometimes climbing inside upstage piano which is part of the set. Both are fine actors whose reactions to what is going on help to drive the narrative forward.<\/p>\n
Every inch an opera \u2013 there is no spoken dialogue \u2013 The Paradis Files, which reference lots of other works and composers never settles to a single style but neither is it pastiche. In England Paradis was known as \u201cThe Blind Enchantress\u201d and there\u2019s a lovely Mozartian riff on those words. And we end in Rossini-esque mode because it\u2019s an upbeat story<\/p>\n
Bethan Langford, who cheerfully tells the audience at the beginning \u201cI\u2019m visually impaired\u201d brings warmth and depth to Paradis. Other actors lead her unobtrusively round the rather busy set and she sits at the piano stool in several scenes. Langford has a rich mezzo voice with some beautiful navy blue notes in the lower register. It blends particularly well with Maureen Braithwaite\u2019s soprano. Braithwaite plays Paradis\u2019s difficult, determined, troubled mother \u2013 a complex character. Ella Taylor finds lots of saucy kindness in Gerda the maid and her soprano voice is attractive too \u2013 although this gritty maid – feisty, trans and kind – is no Susanah.<\/p>\n
Wallen\u2019s score makes a great play with the \u201cgossips\u201d. In any other art form we\u2019d call them the \u201censemble\u201d with minor characters emerging from their ranks. Here they come somewhere between an operatic and a Greek chorus \u2013 commenting on the action and furthering the narrative. And, of course, although we\u2019re in the 18th and early nineteenth centuries this is a 2022 piece so Wallen has a occasional fun with cross rhythms, jazz and rock borrowings so that sometimes the gossips dance incongruously as they sing. It\u2019s great fun.<\/p>\n
The Paradis Files is directed by Jenny Sealey, Graeae\u2019s artistic director and she knows, really knows, how to create stunning theatre. This piece is stonkingly good: intelligent, funny, moving, beautifully sung and skilfully staged. If this website required me to provide a star rating this show would be a five.<\/p>\n
Co-produced by Curve, Leicester and opened there before two performances at Southbank Centre, The Paradis Files now tours until 12 May to Milton Keynes, Colchester, Hull, Perth, Cardiff and Sheffield. All details at www.graeae.org.<\/p>\n
Susan Elkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759-1824), roughly contemporary with Beethoven, was an Austrian musician. Highly acclaimed in her day as a pianist and composer, almost all her music is now lost although most of us are familiar with her Sicilienne. She … Continue reading