Gerald Barry: The Importance of Being Earnest at the Gaiety Theatre, November 8th

Gerald Barry’s latest opera must be the most highly anticipated event of Dublin’s classical music calendar. Astonishingly for a work completed in 2010, this production by Wide Open Opera and NI Opera is the third production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Its previous performances have led to huge hype in the run up to this production, and no shortage of spoilers in the press. Unsurprisingly, the Gaiety is almost completely full. It should be noted that this is the first staging of a Barry opera in his home country in over twenty years.

A hilarious evening’s entertainment, The Importance of Being Earnest is an important step in salvaging Barry’s reputation among Leaving Certificate students everywhere. Perhaps the greatest achievement of this opera is the absolute service at all times of the music to the drama (even when lines of the play are interrupted mid-word by jittering trumpet interjections, this somehow seems to further Wilde’s goals).

Barry’s chaotic, angular instrumental lines are dispatched with considerable panache by Crash Ensemble, who have a long tradition of playing Barry’s works. The ensemble tonight, conducted by the superb Pierre-André Valade, is an exceptionally large one by Crash’s standards, with twenty-one instrumentalists involved (but just five strings). Barry’s orchestration conjures a magnificent array of colours, and the lack of a juicy string section is never noticeable.

Performances from the singers are all of high quality. Of particular note is Stephen Richardson’s strange and scary turn as the Lady Bracknell (yes – cast as a bass). Hilary Summers is perhaps slightly less convincing as Miss Prism, but the extremes in register in her part make this almost inevitable. Cristopher Cull is utterly hilarious throughout as two different butlers. Perhaps even more impressive than the cast’s handling of Barry’s notoriously unforgiving vocal lines is their acting: All eight could be mistaken for theatre actors who just happen to be able to sing opera. In a work so well known in its original dramatic form, this is probably essential.

The set is stunning and the production world class. The near-constant use of what looks like laboriously choreographed dancing and contortions makes the whole opera a dizzying visual feast. The costumes bring more touches of magic; in particular the elaborate Victorian bustles on the tails of the male Lady Bracknell’s jacket (a further inspired element of gender bending), and Miss Fairfax’s androgynous outfit in the first act. The scene where Earnest spends several minutes tossing hundreds of soft toys on to the stage from first one wing and then the other – while searching for the handbag he was found in as a baby – as the rest of the cast cower on stage behind an upturned chair will go down as one of the greatest moments in opera.

Barry’s handling of the text is masterful. Wilde’s play is cut asunder, with roughly two thirds of the text lifted out. Despite this, the plot hangs together and the libretto flows as if it had never been subjected to violent surgery. The ability to write a good libretto is traditionally not expected of a composer, and this achievement should not go unnoticed. A highlight is the occasional mutilation of some of Wilde’s famous aphorisms, leaving the audience to fill in the gaps. Barry’s slimmed down version of Wilde’s wit somehow manages to concentrate the humour rather than dilute it.

The score sees Barry at his uncompromising best. His jagged style is always unique, but there is an extraordinary abundance of original brushstrokes in this opera: The already infamous (and show-stopping) plate-breaking scene, the megaphone duet, the constant, irreverent allusions to Beethoven 5 and Ode to Joy (including two bizarre settings of Schiller’s text), the extended instrumental breaks right in the middle of words, the complete refusal to set words as they should be set. Barry is a magpie, taking from every aspect of the classical tradition as he adds his own contributions, always transforming the basic elements he steals into something shocking. This is his genius.

Photos: Patrick Redmond