Family Matters
Bridewell Theatre, London

Amy Matthews

It would be against everything I stand for not to adore a production in which a couple's romantic reverie about a utopian future (inevitably reminiscent of West Side Story's 'Somewhere') is interrupted by the entrance of three men dressed as enormous oranges. Yes, fully fantastical fancy-dress fruits, roughly four feet in diameter, complete with shiny green leggings, castanets and a Mariachi-esque explosion of musical accompaniment.

Due adoration therefore goes to Family Matters, an opera penned by six different composers around a libretto written by the Olivier Award-winning Amanda Holden (Thankfully not the one who was married to Les Dennis and is currently failing to stun in the West End's Thoroughly Modern Millie.) Developed and workshopped at BAC in September 2003, it is now a fully cohesive show with an involving, moving and entertaining plot centred around the secrets and deceptions of the Fitzroy family, combining elements of French farce (the inspiration was the third of Beaumarchais' 'Figaro' trilogy of plays) with more serious moral and social themes.

The use of six separate composers creates a rapidly changing pace which serves to maintain a constant interest, even for those like myself with a positively childlike attention span. The resulting variations in style and approach are obvious, though all are absorbed into an overall musical consistency, while occasional vignettes allow the composers to explore more fully influences normally outside the world of opera, such as musical theatre (as in the upbeat opening number), and close-harmony singing.

The latter surprisingly provides one of the most moving sections of the opera, in which Rosa, the mother, confesses her matrimonial sins and begs forgiveness for her son. The religious imagery is upheld by a chorus of veiled onlookers, very much in the Greek model, who provide the sole musical accompaniment for her lament.

(On this note, why has no-one ever written an entirely a cappella opera? Rather than just a dramatised oratorio, why not a real opera, 'traditional' in all senses of the form, apart from a lack of instruments? Judging by how succesful the chunks of music written in this form were as part of Family Matters, surely a skillful chorus and cast of lead characters could combine to form each other's accompaniment in a full-length production. Actually, I was once in an a cappella musical called Inflatable Bliss but, perhaps as the name suggests, it didn't really go all out to scale the artistic heights of this unexplored genre, utterly hilarious though it was.)

Much of the writing lies between the definitions of tonal and atonal music, with enough harmonic resolution to please less experienced ears, but enough genuinely innovative material to make this an importantly original project. As if to aid an audience faced by a lack of surtitles or familiarity with a well-known story, the music pays consistent attention to the rhetoric and expression of the libretto, gently nursing and drawing out the humour, pathos, passion and tragedy of the script. All the parts are well sung, and with sufficiently clear annunciation that only the occasional phrase is lost.

My only real criticisms of the production lie in some of the seemingly extraneous detail, for example, the decision to set the opera very specifically in 1992 without paying any real attention to fitting the costumes or some of the set to that date. Or the DNA double-helix designs on the headscarves of the hooded chorus which are a clever touch, but only visible to the first few rows, as the scene is performed in near darkness. The performances equally have just a few unsuccesful moments - there are occasions when a degree of commitment to acting is sacrificed for the sake of the singing, and the movement could at times be slicker, but overall, the singers range from solid to superb.

To talk of the accessiblity or elitism of Family Matters would be to do an injustice to the spirit behind the production. It simply transcends any preconceived definitions of contemporary opera, and I can only quote the director, Bill Bankes-Jones, in saying that it provides 'a great night out at the theatre for anyone'.

Till 22 February 2004