Festival Music
PREVIEW IL RITORNO D’ULISSE Ulysses the opera brought to life by giant puppets
In parallel with Scotland’s big Homecoming theme of 2009, South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company make their Edinburgh debut with a puppet and animation interpretation of Monteverdi’s opera about Homer’s Ulysses returning from war to his homeland. Using three-quarter life-sized wooden puppets to tell the story, the challenge for the company was working out a way to make the puppets be the singers. ‘It’s possible to inhabit the puppets with words,’ says designer and master puppeteer Adrian Kohler, ‘but we really struggled at first to make the music and puppets connect.’ The trick leading to success lay in the puppeteers not only learning the music as thoroughly as the musicians, but knowing precisely where the singers breathe so that, says Kohler, ‘the puppets are allowed to move with the phrasing of the music. Suddenly the music and the puppets became one.’
Their first foray into opera since the company was co-founded in Cape
Town by Kohler and fellow puppeteer Basil Jones, Il Ritorno is a huge development from Handspring’s original focus on educational work for children. Singer, puppet and puppeteer are all visible to the audience and although there are only seven singers, there are 18 performers on stage. It was essential that whatever music Handspring selected for their first opera had to be adaptable. ‘We’ve cut a three hour opera down to half of that,’ explains Kohler, ‘as the weight of the puppets can’t be held for any longer. Some Monteverdi purists didn’t like us tampering, but it is all in the nature of an experiment to see if the puppets could sing.’ Animated film using charcoal drawings by director William Kentridge is
part and parcel of the production, which opens with Ulysses lying in a modern hospital. He wakes up, gets better and is finally reunited with Penelope, his wife. (Carol Main) ■ King’s Theatre, 473 2000, 23, 25 & 26 Aug, 8pm, £10–30.
REVIEW LIVING ROOM Improving on improv ●●●●● Austrian acts have been too few and far between since the halcyon days of classical music. The multi-faceted session-like duo of Living Room take both a step into chamber music and
another into the world of jazz improvisation. Messrs Christoph Pepe Auer & Manu Delago are at ease performing in a sedate room of a dozen patrons, most appreciative of their unique abilities and unusual stylings.
Augmented by the odd, in fact very odd, toy instrument (a spinning top and a plastic tube thingy), bass clarinettist Christoph and hang- percussionist Manu present their laid- back muzak like no other, although undeniably inspired by such New York jazz session luminaries as Wayne Shorter and Ornette Coleman.
Incidentally, the ‘hang’ is a relatively new instrument (circa 2001), of Swiss origin and comprising of three flying- saucer-like metal objects with varying degrees of note structure. Meditative but seductive, one finds their music – and this is not a criticism – taking you to the land of nod. Only a sharp poke in one’s eye and their undeniable talent keeps one from narcolepsy – or maybe it was just that time of day.
Listen out for the unique medley of Queen songs. (Martin C Strong) ■ Sweet Grassmarket, Apex City Hotel, 0870 241 0136, until 312 Aug, 3.45pm, £8 (£6).
PREVIEW TREMBLING BELLS Folk-rock magic from Glasgow Alex Neilson’s questing spirit has led him to play with Will Oldham and Texan outsider Jandek, make free jazz
52 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 20–27 Aug 2009
with saxophonist Sonny Simmons, and explode traditional folk songs with Scatter and Directing Hand. But with Trembling Bells, the mercurial drummer has switched his focus to songwriting. ‘I felt it much more in the spirit of experimentation to try something I had never done before,’ he explains. The results were remarkable enough for legendary producer Joe Boyd to invite the band to join Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Band at his Witchseason Weekender in July. ‘It was a real honour to share a stage with people who helped expand my idea of what music could be,’ Neilson says. Debut album Carbeth is one of the year’s best, with Neilson and co-
vocalist Lavinia Blackwell leading the band through a collection of ecstatic folk-rock and visionary ballads that suggests a basement jam between Fairport Convention, Palace and Sun Ra. Catch them now before they escape to the studio to record next album, Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day. (Stewart Smith) ■ Electric Circus, 226 4224, 25 Aug, 8pm, £4; Stereo, Glasgow, 26 Aug.
REVIEW THE MAGNETS – GOBSMACKED Take it to the Fringe ●●●●● A multi-talented ‘six-pack’ ensemble from England, The Magnets breathe
fresh air into a cappella singing, while adding their cheeky confidence, dancing and interplay theatrics. With both ensemble singing and each individual taking a turn under the spotlight, their appreciative capacity audience revels in their every move and instrument-like verbals. While quirky renditions of The
Buzzcocks’ ‘Ever Fallen in Love’ and Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ impress without going too overboard, the lads come up trumps via showstoppers ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ (once property of hard- rockers The Darkness) and recent smash ‘Poker Face’ – Lady GaGa eat your heart out.
Wannabe Scots Rod Stewart and Franz Ferdinand (Alex Kapranos), come in for a bit of flak by way of the lads’ bagpipe-like mouth pieces – but it’s all tongue-in-cheek so to speak. Hats off all round to The Magnets’
amazing oral percussionist, who would – with a blindfolded audience – give ‘real’ sticksman Phil Collins a run for his money. Forget G4, The Flying Pickets or any of their ilk, The Magnets (who go through an A-Z of hit songs) are value for money and worthy of bigger things – beyond The X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent. The world is indeed their oyster. (Martin C Strong) ■ Udderbelly’s Pasture, 08944 545 8252, until 31 Aug, 5.25pm, £11.50–14 (£9.50–£12.50).