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The Perelandra Project

PostPosted: November 17th, 2008, 11:07 pm
by matdonna

PostPosted: November 18th, 2008, 4:47 am
by Adam Linton
Fascinating! I had not known of this Swan-Lewis collaboration. I have a feeling that I would have a hard time with it, though (or any stage or film presentation) because Perelandra is very vividly fixed in my imagination.

(In fact, for some time, I've been trying to recover my pre-film mental pictures of both the CoN and TLotR. They were so clear in my imind.)

PostPosted: November 18th, 2008, 8:51 pm
by Sven
We briefly discussed the opera a couple of years ago, .


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Perelandra

PostPosted: November 22nd, 2008, 6:03 pm
by alcuin
This sounds fascinating. I have just visited the website and been impressed. Perelandra is the 'wordiest' of the Ransom novels, and obviously was a natural choice out of all the books for an opera.

The associated conference also sounds very interesting. Perhaps we should run an in-house equivalent?

:coffee:


Thanks for highlighting this, Sven.

Re: The Perelandra Project

PostPosted: February 24th, 2009, 8:22 pm
by Sven
There was a review in this month's issue of Christianity Today of the stage production of The Screwtape Letters*. At the end of the review, it mentioned that the director/playwright, Jeffrey Fiske, and the show's star, Max McLean, are looking to do a stage production of Perelandra.


*A wonderful show if anyone has a chance to see it.

Re: The Perelandra Project

PostPosted: February 24th, 2009, 9:12 pm
by Jofa
This sounds very interesting. Anybody knows if the conference is somehow restricted (else than fee-wise) - I mean, can anybody participate?

Even if it is, I think I am going to actually take a trip to Oxford this June and at least see the opera.

Re: The Perelandra Project

PostPosted: April 4th, 2009, 4:29 pm
by Jofa
Well, I'm going. :)

Re: The Perelandra Project

PostPosted: June 25th, 2009, 2:39 pm
by Ribston Pippin
I'm going as well, to see the opera at the Sheldonian on Friday night and also to the colloquium on Friday and Saturday. Will probably feel quite nervous amongst international academics. I was going to present a paper on Perelandra and evolution but didn't find enough time in the end to do the subject justice, only found out quite late. Will post notes on opera.

Re: The Perelandra Project

PostPosted: June 25th, 2009, 6:07 pm
by rusmeister
By an irony of fate, one of the speakers - a Russian PhD - had me check/edit his paper for the colloquium (to make the English as native as possible). I'm hoping to meet him in person this summer. Wish I could hang around cool places like that...

Re: The Perelandra Project

PostPosted: June 25th, 2009, 10:31 pm
by Jofa
Just had a pint of ale at the Bird&Baby a few hours ago. Pleasant. :)

Re: The Perelandra Project

PostPosted: June 30th, 2009, 11:50 am
by Ribston Pippin
The colloquium and opera were both FAR OUT! proceedings of the colloquium will hopefully be published in due course, and the opera...well, we shall see. It was truly marvellous but is not without hiccups-some of the songs don't really work and its too long at just over 3 hours. As Leon Berger (singer and director) said at the discussion on the opera the following day at the colloquium, a work like this would normally be revised by the author(s) after the (1964) premiere, but for various reasons (CSL's death and copyright issues amongst them) this couldn't happen. It really it is a bit like an almost-finished work coming out of a time capsule.

See the web site of the Oxford C S Lewis soceity and the Perelandra project (which is their project) for details as they emerge in due course.

I just sent this brief review at http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/review_submit.php


'''I was at the Sheldonian concert and thought it was wonderful. I am biased as I have been a fan of the book for 30 years, but this really was an enjoyable evening with excellent performances all round. Leon Berger was particularly outstanding as Weston/the Un-man. The youngster who sang the voice of an eldil towards the end was also outstanding, but there were no duff performances from chorus, principals or orchestra.

As discussed, this was really a delayed premiere of an opera which was afflicted with incredible bad luck at the original opening, and probably does need some tinkering with the libretto and reduction by about 40 minutes as it really is rather long. This revision should have happened after the initial premiere, but due to C S Lewis's death and the copyright issues this didn't happen.

I can't wait for the recording to become available. I believe there will be a market for this opera once tidied up and shortened-I am a long term C S Lewis fan, Perelandra is my favourite of his books, but I only discovered this opera had ever existed a few months ago. Other CSL fans-and there are a lot of us- will be interested when they find out. This should be on at the BBC proms.'''


all the best

Re: The Perelandra Project

PostPosted: July 1st, 2009, 3:54 pm
by Jofa
Yup, once I got over the fact that there is not going to be any stage decorations or costumes (did not expect that) I enjoyed the opera very much. I agree Weston and the eldil were the best performances. I also loved the chorus and the way it added dramatic stress, emotion to the whole performance. Personally I wasn't very fond of the voices of the Green Lady and Ransom. I definitely think the GL should have a bit of a deeper voice, not so high-pitched and gentle. But maybe that's simply a question of likes and dislikes. I did enjoy the performance very much.

And I wouldn't shorten it at all. They had to cut some sequences out anyway, and I wouldn't expect an opera to be less than 3hrs anyway.

The conference was great too. Nice also in the way that there weren't that many delegates so we could actually remember each other's names and spend some time together if one wanted too. Was my first time in Oxford as well so enjoyed having a look at the place. Pretty neat.