Tales of Love and Loss: the title made this triple bill of English-language one-acters from the Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Artists sound like something very serious. In fact, it sent us out laughing.
Admittedly, after the first work the mood could only lighten. Elizabeth Maconchy’s 1961 two-hander The Departure, last staged in 2007, begins with a woman watching a funeral through her bedroom window; when her husband comes home she realises it is her own death that is being mourned, and that she is there to say farewell. Directed by Talia Stern, in a 1960s set designed by Ana Inés Jabares-Pita, it flirted with melodrama, especially in the flashing-light effects as she remembered the fatal car crash, and the ending, with the sound of a baby crying, felt mawkish. Still, Maconchy’s music, sombre yet lyrically expansive in a way that made it feel like the orchestra was bigger than the 14-strong Britten Sinfonia, made an impressive vocal showcase for the mezzo-soprano Ellen Pearson and baritone Sam Hird.
