Mark-Anthony Turnage: reviews of The Railway Children
Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new operatic version of The Railway Children emerged from lockdown to take the stage successfully at Glyndebourne. Based on the 1906 book by Edith Nesbit, the drama is transformed in Rachael Hewer’s libretto to become a pacy cold war thriller.
Glyndebourne’s premiere production of The Railway Children, with music by Mark-Anthony Turnage setting a libretto by Rachael Hewer, saw the curtain go up on 30 October, offering a family opera for all ages. The staging was directed by Stephen Langridge with Glyndebourne forces conducted by Tim Anderson, suitably marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway. After the five performances at Glyndebourne, including two for local Sussex schools, the opera is presented as a staged concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London’s Southbank Centre on 8 November.
The Railway Children staging succeeded as a true family opera, appealing both to older generations who read the book as children or fondly remember the classic 1970 film version starring Jenny Agutter and Bernard Cribbins, and to a young audience who knew neither and experienced the recast drama as a fresh theatrical experience. The Times described the new take as “a white-knuckle ride… Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera for Glyndebourne radically updates Edith Nesbit’s classic with the twists and turns of a spy thriller”.
“Turnage’s adaptation updates the novel to the 1980s cold war… Instead of a charming, wide-eyed tale of three youngsters gambolling in the English countryside, the opera gives us a spy mystery updated to the 1980s cold war with KGB double agents and a poison-tipped walking stick.”
Financial Times
“…Turnage’s score is full of incident. There are lyrical waltz-time solos, a splendidly mournful dirge for the commuters waiting on the station platform, a playful hint of The Rite of Spring when the mysterious Russian suddenly appears, some wry comedic writing for the phlegmatic stationmaster, and pulsating ‘train’ music that evokes the violent exuberance of Turnage’s jazz-tinged orchestral works.”
The Times
“…an effective take bringing something fresh to an old favourite… Hewer’s libretto is direct and clear, with switches between narration and dialogue moving the action along with pace. Turnage’s score is tight and equally pacy, with strong use of chamber forces, from single strings to woodwinds and dashes of percussion, the overall style of tense action thriller occasionally giving way to more tender lyricism.”
Bachtrack
“Turnage’s energetic score… bristles with motoric effects. Train noises prove fertile ground, underpinning scene changes and doing duty as a metaphor for emotional tension in general.”
The Guardian
Helsinki plays host to further performances of Turnage’s powerful recent stagework Festen, opening at Finnish National Opera on 27 March. The composer has created a Festen Suite for orchestra, adapting music from the opera, which is premiered in Copenhagen on 5 February by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alondra de la Parra.
> Further information on Work: The Railway Children
Photo: Glyndebourne / Richard Hubert Smith