Uprising review — the human cost of climate change brought to life in song
If cynics seem to be everywhere, you can always rely on a community opera to supply a restorative dose of youthful idealism. Uprising, premiered at Glyndebourne with music by Jonathan Dove and words by April De Angelis, has unusually touching origins. It was funded by an arts patron, Jim Potter, who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. He wanted his final commission to be a warning about impending environmental catastrophe, and lived just long enough to hear Dove sing the opera to him.
Potter surely would have been thrilled by this full staging, directed by Sinéad O’Neill and involving 50 excellent local teenagers (sadly almost no boys among them) and a similar-sized adult community choir, along with a drum ensemble, youth orchestra and professional singers and instrumentalists. Dove, who wrote his first community opera for Glyndebourne 35 years ago, is the master of weaving disparate pro-am forces into compelling scores, and this is one of his most attractive.
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There are heart-stopping climaxes for the whole cast, choral passages that counterpoint catchy refrains over minimalist riffs, lyrical solos (including one gorgeous unaccompanied interlude evoking birdsong), ominous recurring motifs suggesting the desecration of nature, and light-touch comedy ensembles, all beautifully scored so that every word, whether sung by professional or amateur, is heard. It’s admirably conducted by Andrew Gourlay.
And the story? Well, it’s an unquestioning homage to Greta Thunberg and young, impassioned eco-warriors like her, spliced with magic realism. The teenage Lola (fervently played by Ffion Edwards) refuses to attend school unless her parents become vegans, renounce their car and wasteful lifestyle and generally try to understand her anguish about the future of the planet. Initially sceptical schoolmates gradually join her in mass protest.
Her dad (Ross Ramgobin) gets converted to the eco-cause quickly, but her mum (Madeleine Shaw, superbly domineering in voice and gesture), a high-powered town planner, refuses to change her belief in progress at all costs — which includes chopping down a forest to build a motorway. This triggers flooding and ecological catastrophe; a particularly striking sequence has the names of extinct species intoned like a litany from singers in the audience. But the ending is hopeful.
It’s a very contrived and improbable plot, but redeemed by shafts of debunking humour and by Mike Ashcroft’s exuberant choreography, whether depicting a self-righteous mob of schoolkids or a dying forest. Even if you have reservations about the Thunbergs of the world, there’s plenty to enjoy here.
★★★★☆
155 mins
Saffron Hall, Essex, Mar 15-16; Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Mar 28; Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Mar 28-29
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