24 Italian Songs and Arias
The Yard Theatre
Reviewed – 15th January 2019
★★★★★
“Without romanticising failure or bitterly rehashing it, this is a performance about frustration, drifting and feeling ‘not good enough’”
Brian Lobel and Gweneth-Ann Rand have failed. That is, the two fantastic failures have created a magnificent performance that interrogates what it is to fail in art, in life, in public and in private. The show is made up of a beautiful selection from the 24 Italian Songs and Arias songbook that are interspersed with personal stories and conversations. It is a hilarious, warm, candid and thought-provoking piece that reminds us all that we need to learn to live with our failures.
Failing is so often a very lonely moment. One fails as an individual and, as Lobel points out, the experience itself is given very little room in contemporary capitalist culture. Lobel and Rand have not only given failure the stage, but they have turned it into a collective experience. Failure is being increasingly thought about by the art and the corporate world alike but, it is opera in particular here that Lobel offers as the last bastion in which it is possible to truly fail, to be booed off stage and have serious career setbacks.
What I did not expect is how funny opera can be. The translations and commentaries displayed onscreen manage to flit from the poignant to the comic. In a move of brilliantly simple staging, there is even a banner with the score that failed Lobel, preventing him from entering the State Choir.
Perhaps ironically for a show that is about failing to sing, the Italian Songs and Arias are performed by a host of talented singers, all with different backgrounds and stories to share. Gweneth-Ann Rand’s voice is powerful and delicate while Joseph Marchant offers a performance that is tender and controlled. One of the last songs performed by Naomi Felix was extraordinarily beautiful.
The whole show weaves emotional tones with grace and subtlety. Without romanticising failure or bitterly rehashing it, this is a performance about frustration, drifting and feeling ‘not good enough’. To accompany this review with a star rating seems inadequate. Instead, what I would really like to offer is deep admiration and fascination for a piece by performers who are certainly more than ‘good enough’.
Reviewed by Tatjana Damjanovic
Photography by Maurizio Martorana
24 Italian Songs and Arias
The Yard Theatre until 19th January as part of Now 19 Festival
Previously reviewed at this venue:
Buggy Baby | ★★★★ | March 2018
Three Sisters by RashDash after Chekhov | ★★★★ | May 2018
A New and Better You | ★★★★ | June 2018
The Act | ★★★½ | July 2018
A Kettle of Fish | ★★★ | September 2018
Moot Moot | ★★ | October 2018
Super Duper Close Up | ★★★★★ | November 2018
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