The Diary Of Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank

Review by George Fleeton

Written in Dutch over two years (1942-44) ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ by 14 year old Anne Frank was first published in English in 1952 and has never been out of print.

It was in the care of her father who survived her by thirty-five years.

Grigory Frid is a 96 year old Russian composer of vast experience and output in most musical genres.

The first of his two mono-operas, The Diary of Anne Frank, for soprano and nine-piece ensemble in twenty-one scenes, was composed in 1968.

His other, later chamber opera is based on the letters of Van Gogh to Theo.

Opera Theatre Company’s revival of last year’s The Diary of Anne Frank came to the recent Belfast Festival at Queen’s (October 20), the Waterfront Hall Studio to be precise, where poor, unbalanced acoustics and an ensemble-without-pianissimo made for a less than enlightening experience.

This was unfortunate as this piece deserves a wider audience than it received on the night, but it is specialised stuff, with keyless and atonal music heavily influenced by the Schoenberg school of composition (in which, at its very simplest, there are twelve notes each and all equally sounded).

Several who spoke to me afterwards were not prepared for that particular challenge.

Frequently it was impossible to make out what the soprano Ani Maldjian was singing, the ensemble was too close to the set and seemed to overpower rather than support the solo voice.

The set itself, a large upright book, each page turned to reveal another discovery space, was a marvel but it gave no sense of Anne’s claustrophobia or of the nearness of her family and her friend Peter.

To have the text of the libretto to hand was helpful but could not of course be used when we were trying to watch and listen to the work.

After Belfast, the company travelled to the former Irish Colleges in Leuven and Paris, where we hope it was more enthusiastically received.

There was also an interesting short documentary on Grigory Frid, as part of the programme, which may also be watched on the OTC website.

At a time when indigenous production of opera in Ireland is on its knees it might pay Opera Theatre Company to stick for a while with the old operatic chestnuts until things improve.

In that respect, their next offering is Mozart’s masonic extravaganza The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte, K620, Vienna 1791) - the one with three temples, three ladies, three boys, a bird catcher, the Queen of the Night and a serpent.

This production opened in Dublin on November 25 and will then tour nationwide, including the new Down Arts Centre in Downpatrick on February 11.

www.opera.ie

George Fleeton

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