Review

Paul Bunyan, ENO, Wilton’s Music Hall, review: Britten's first opera is still a joyful spectacle of youthful exuberance

Paul Bunyan, ENO at Wilton's Music Hall
Paul Bunyan, ENO at Wilton's Music Hall Credit: Genevieve Girling

Britten’s first foray into opera was a musical comedy about a mythical lumberjack, composed to a libretto by W H Auden while both men were based in the USA during the first years of the Second World War. 

Auden delivers only a sliver of plot, peppering the episodes with his characteristic smartass wit as well as gusts of philosophical hot air. Bunyan (a giant of stern morality, represented only by a recorded God-like voice offstage) sets up a camp of immigrant loggers. A motley crew, they grumble about Bunyan’s leadership and are prone to quarrel, but once their work of clearance is done, they unite for a riotous farewell party and move on to forests new.

It’s a parable, of course, hailing a virgin continent that liberates dreams and possibilities — “America is what you choose to make it”.  Perhaps there’s something wilfully glib about its optimism: the totalitarian horrors being enacted in Europe during its gestation are barely hinted at.

Never mind. Auden’s text did the job of inspiring Britten to a score of amazing invention and charm, profligate with catchy tunes in a variety of idioms both rousing and sentimental, including blues and country.

For sheer youthful exuberance, it matches anything he ever wrote, and if asked to argue the case for Britten’s genius in thirty seconds, I’d present Johnny Inkslinger’s wistful miniature aria All the Little Brooks of Love as irrefutable evidence.

Paul Bunyan, ENO at Wilton's Music Hall
Paul Bunyan, ENO at Wilton's Music Hall Credit: Genevieve Girling

First performed by students in Manhattan, Paul Bunyan is a gift for young singers. For this new production, ENO has moved from the Coliseum to the more intimate environment of Wilton’s Music Hall — a mixed blessing, as the seats are excruciatingly uncomfortable and the acoustics so resonant that at times the music becomes merely deafening.

Jamie Manton’s staging tries desperately hard to please and impress — quite needlessly, as Britten and Auden are quite capable of doing that without his help. Too much is semaphored and exaggerated, too much is superfluous clutter and not very funny either — why, for instance, do the young lovers Tiny and Slim metamorphose into Elvis and Marilyn?

Paul Bunyan, ENO at Wilton's Music Hall
Paul Bunyan, ENO at Wilton's Music Hall Credit: Genevieve Girling

But the spectacle is colourful and energised, and the entire cast fling themselves into it with disarming gusto. There are some terrific performances from ENO’s chorus in small roles, and particularly lovely singing from Elgan Llyr Thomas (Johnny Inkslinger) and Rowan Pierce (Tiny). Simon Russell Beale provides the booming voice of Paul, and Matthew Kofi Waldren conducts the band with warm affection. Whatever one’s reservations about the drama, such music is a tonic.

Until Saturday September 8. Tickets: 0207 845 9300; www.eno.org

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