Gabrielle Watts talks to a local group punching well above its musical weight ahead of their upcoming performance
In 2013, Francis Lambert and Paul Garland made an agreement with Michael Thorne. One Die Meistersinger later and Saffron Walden was the birthplace of an internationally acclaimed opera group. With guest soloists who’ve sung across the world, the group punches well above its musical weight in scope, mastery and ambition.
On 17 January they will be performing Das Rheingold at Saffron Hall. It strikes the opening note of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, a series of four operas which will be performed in concert by the group over the course of the next two years. The series will be led by Professor Thorne, vice chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University, and if the success of Die Meistersinger is anything to go by, we’re in for something rather special. Like Die Meistersinger, it’s a challenge, and though an afternoon performance and in concert, not staged, it’ll bring Saffron Hall the largest orchestra it has ever seen.
This will include over 100 musicians, seven harps and four Wagner tubas. Also, what Francis Lambert calls “the obligatory” anvils, “which are never anvils at all and are usually lengths of iron or steel tuned to three octaves of F”. In all, 15 soloists will be involved, most of them established international singers.
In November 2013, the Saffron Walden Choral Society were the very first performers in Saffron Hall, where they sang Verdi’s Requiem before its official opening. Professor Thorne heard it and was so enraptured by the acoustics that he vowed to perform Wagner there. Paul Garland and Francis helped organise his first effort which, Francis says “modestly, turned out to be Die Meistersinger!” The pair were thereafter introduced to Wagnerian soprano Elaine McKrill, who became their casting advisor.
Francis points out that in opera the Group are essentially locally providing a music genre that no one else does. He feels, justly, that they “have certainly achieved our aim of producing top-quality performances… we have also achieved our aims of local involvement and the use of new talent. What we have not achieved yet is a loyal audience following, but we know it will take time for the word to spread”.
The praise has been flooding in for the group, with Michael Tanner of Opera Magazine saying he could “hardly believe it”, and Jim Pritchard, former chair of the Wagner Society, describing Die Meistersinger as “something I felt lucky to hear, and will never forget”. In response Francis said: “it’s certainly a spur and tells us we are doing something right. Importantly it confirms that the formula we have for soloists, orchestra and chorus works at the highest level.”
Asked about the Group’s plans, Francis is looking towards a road less travelled. “There is no point putting on a concert performance of Carmen locally,” he points-out, “when a fully-staged performance can be seen in nearby London or an even more nearby cinema very frequently.”
Whilst the group has a strong focus on including local talent, the involvement of professional musicians, wherever they might hail from, means those in both orchestra and chorus “get a huge kick out of doing something they would otherwise get no chance to do and certainly not with such eminent soloists.”
And what of plans for the future? “We are working on a rolling five-year plan,” says Francis. “Above all we strive to be accessible. And this goes for all those who work with us as well as our audience. We are a very happy ship.”
QUICK FACTS
• Das Rheingold premiered in Munich in 1869
• It follows a dwarf who steals enchanted gold and forges a mysterious and powerful ring which thereafter alters the course of the universe
• The Ring Cycle consists of four operas
• It inspired J R R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
• It was based on a 13th-century German poem, Nibelungenlied
• The Wagner Society has fast-tracked Donald Thomson for top-level coaching in the role of Fafner
• He is a member of the Mastersingers Company
• Soloists performing with Saffron Opera Group have been involved with the Royal, New York Metropolitan and Washington National Operas
