The Play of Herod

I wasn’t sure what to expect of The Play of Herod, a new composition by Richard Mills of a twelfth century liturgical drama all in Latin, and sung by the Victorian Youth Opera.

I was blown away!

The venue was a coup for a start. Newman College, with his extremely high ceilings and wonderful acoustic, was enhanced by having some of the singers and instrumentalists in the organ loft at the back. The rest of the orchestra was situated on the sides of the main stage and at various times the brass players would walk up to the front and position themselves behind the singers, later returning to the rear.

Conductor Phoebe Briggs did a magnificent job controlling all these forces from the side of the stage.

There were almost fifty singers on stage at various times, none less than competent and many quite impressive. As you would expect in music based on the twelfth century, much of it was unison, though different groups would be singing different music. Occasionally the Three Wise Men would break into harmony.

Probably the biggest and most difficult role was that of the Archangel, sung by coloratura soprano, Elizabeth Barrow. Her clear, bright voice never faltered and she had some difficult music to sing. The Three Wise Men, Dylan Casey, Raphael Wong and Daniel Carison, were strong and worked well together.

Kiran Rajasingam looked too nice to be the evil Herod but his death was dramatic. As his son and murderer, Jacob Lawrence was impressive as Archelaus and Luke Belle was very funny as the nervous Armiger. Shajeda Kalizki-Abedin sang beautifully as Rachel, mourning all the infant sons slaughtered by Herod’s soldiers.

The costuming worked well and the direction was effective. There were no dead spots and everyone was well drilled. That was a lot of Latin to learn. The music was exciting, particularly the timpani.

With so many young singers doing so well this augurs well for opera in Victoria.

Graham Ford

Photographer: Charlie Kinross.