Just as Garsington’s Dalia sounded its final note, the all-female RAF flypast set off from Brize Norton to spur on the Lionesses at Wembley (nearly swooping right over the opera festival’s Chilterns home on the journey east). In every sense, the timing for last Sunday’s matinee, the last of three performances, was ideal. With music by Roxanna Panufnik and libretto by Jessica Duchen, this new community opera had a pertinence no one could have foreseen when the work was commissioned (following the same team’s success with Silver Birch in 2017).
Women playing “men’s” sport, in this case cricket, is one part of its double-headed subject matter. The other is the global refugee crisis. A Syrian girl, Dalia Khaled, her home and family shattered, is cared for by a family in Britain. Despite their love and support, she encounters prejudice, until discovering a passion for cricket. Her skill at spin bowling boosts her confidence and provides solace in the face of catastrophe. With 180 performers – local High Wycombe schoolchildren, adult amateurs, opera professionals and the Philharmonia Orchestra – Dalia has a capacious reach. The involvement, via video link, of the Al Farah choir of Damascus and the Amwaj choir of Bethlehem and Hebron, whose singing is part of the performance, further extends the work’s ambition. There is also, for good measure, an oud player (Rachel Beckles Willson) and a dog. Garsington’s artistic director, Douglas Boyd, conducts. The streamlined show is directed by Karen Gillingham and designed by Rhiannon Newman Brown and her team.
