Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio

 

 

By Margaret S. Hamilton

 

With favorite melodies like “Yesterday” and “Hey, Jude” running through my head, I ordered tickets for the Cincinnati Opera stage production of Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio. McCartney wrote the oratorio—a large scale orchestral and choral work with no costumes, scenery, or action—for the one hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. It was performed in Liverpool Cathedral in 1991 and later performed throughout the world.

 

Music Hall, Cincinnati

In 2022, the Cincinnati Opera started to organize the first opera performance of Liverpool Oratorio—with soloists, chorus, orchestra, costumes, staged with sets—as part of the 2024 Cincinnati Opera’s Summer Festival. Artistic Director Evans Mirageas traveled to Liverpool with the opera set and lighting designers to plan the production. With the four soloists, six members of the Cincinnati Ballet, eighteen members of the Cincinnati Boychoir, and forty-plus members of the Cincinnati Opera chorus, it was a packed stage. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, in full “Verdi” mode with lots of brass, performed in the orchestra pit beneath the stage.

 

McCartney collaborated with TV, film, and ballet composer Carl Davis to orchestrate his oratorio. The work is comprised of eight movements from the life of Shanty, born in 1942 Liverpool during the German bombings. It is an autobiographical piece, mirroring McCartney’s own childhood and teenage years in Liverpool. He pays homage to his grammar school teacher, Miss Inkley, the only female teacher in a school with a thousand male students: “As the lone female in this establishment, you may call me ‘Sir’.”

Stage set

The stage set was a large street map of Liverpool, placed at an angle on the stage floor. The action was relatively fast (unlike some operas with the climax scene—usually a death—lasting up to an hour). The transitions between the movements flowed smoothly. The ending with the combined soloists and choruses reminded me of the final movement of Handel’s Messiah, peace, and joy forever and ever and evermore.

 

The orchestral music was lush and full-bodied. The aria lyrics and melodies were pleasant, evoking many Beatles songs. The solo singers were excellent, veterans of the international opera stage. The ballet dancers seamlessly integrated their choreography into the musical numbers. And not to forget the eighteen members of the Cincinnati Boychoir, running around the stage in their schoolboy blazers, shorts, and knee socks, who stole the show.

Music Hall

 

The Cincinnati Opera is actively engaged in making opera performances accessible to the local community, with recitals and outdoor performances in public venues, including the zoo. By staging McCartney’s oratorio, it has moved summer opera in a new direction, appealing to a wider audience.

 

Readers and writers, have you attended an opera production?