Noye's Fludde

Chester mystery plays English mystery or "miracle" plays were dramatised Bible stories, by ancient tradition performed on Church feast days in town squares and market places by members of the town's craft guilds. They covered the full range of the narrative and metaphor in the Christian Bible, from the fall of Lucifer to the Last Judgement. From the many play cycles that originated in the late Middle Ages, the Chester cycle is one of four that have survived into the 21st century. The texts, by an unidentified writer, were revised during the late 15th century into a format similar to that of contemporary French passion plays, The story of Noah and the flood, the third play in the Chester cycle, was originally performed by the city's Guild of the Drawers of Dee, otherwise known as the water-carriers. A feature of this play, observed by the historian Rosemary Woolf, is the depiction of Noah's wife, and by implication women generally, as disobedient, obdurate and finally abusive, in contrast to the "grave and obedient" Noah and his patient sons. By the latter part of the 16th-century Reformation, the Church had grown less tolerant of mystery plays. A performance in Chester in 1575 is the last recorded from the city until the 20th century, when the Chester cycle was revived under the supervision of Christopher Ede, as part of the city's Festival of Britain celebrations in June 1951. Inception By the late 1940s Benjamin Britten had established himself as a leading composer of English opera, with several major works to his credit. In 1947 he suggested to his librettist Eric Crozier that they should create a children's opera, based on a bible story. Crozier gave Britten a copy of Pollard's book, as a possible source of material. Nothing came of this project immediately; instead, Britten and Crozier wrote the cantata Saint Nicolas (1948), the first of several works in which Britten combined skilled performers with amateurs. The cantata involves at least two children's choirs, and incorporates two congregational hymns sung by the audience. Britten also used this fusion of professional with amateur forces in The Little Sweep (1949), which forms the second part of his entertainment for children, ''Let's Make an Opera'', that he devised with Crozier. Again, child singers (also doubling as actors) were used, and the audience sings choruses at appropriate points. In 1952, although Britten's collaboration with Crozier had ended, he used the Chester plays book as the source text for his Canticle II, based on the story of Abraham and Isaac. In April 1957 Boris Ford, Head of Schools Broadcasting at Associated Rediffusion (A-R), wrote to Britten, proposing a series of half-hour programmes. These would show Britten composing and rehearsing a work through to its performance, and would provide children with "an intimate piece of musical education, by ... watching a piece of music take shape and in some degree growing with it". Britten was initially cautious. He found the idea interesting, but he warned Ford that he was currently occupied with travel and had limited time for writing. He was also anxious not to cover the same ground as he had with ''Let's Make an Opera''. However, he agreed to meet Ford to discuss the project further. On 11 July they met in London, together with Britten's musical assistant Imogen Holst. Britten told Ford that he had "for some months or a year vaguely been thinking of doing something with the [Chester] miracle plays", and agreed to write an opera for A-R's 1958 summer term of school programmes. The subject would be Noah and the flood, based on the Chester text. Later, Ford and his script editor, Martin Worth, travelled to Aldeburgh, and with Britten looked at possible churches for the performance. St Bartholomew's Church, Orford, was chosen as, unlike most other churches in East Suffolk, its pews were not fixed, thus offering a more flexible performing space. ==Roles==

After the opening congregational hymn "Lord Jesus, think on me", the spoken Voice of God addresses Noye, announcing the forthcoming destruction of the sinful world. God tells Noye to build an ark ("a shippe") that will provide salvation for him and his family. Noye agrees, and calls on the people and his family to help. His sons and their wives enter with tools and materials and begin work, while Mrs Noye and her Gossips (close friends) mock the project. When the ark is completed, Noye tries to persuade his wife to enter: "Wyffe, in this vessel we shall be kepte", but she refuses, and they quarrel. The Voice of God foretells forty days and forty nights of rain, and instructs Noye to fill the ark with animals of every kind. The animals enter the ark in pairs, while Noye's sons and their wives provide a commentary. Noye orders his family to board the ark; again Mrs Noye and the Gossips refuse, preferring to carouse. The sons finally drag Mrs Noye on board, while the Gossips are swept away by the encroaching flood; she rewards her husband with a slap. Rain begins to fall, building to a great storm at the height of which the first verse of the naval hymn "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" is heard from the ark. The congregation joins in the second and third verses of the hymn, during which the storm gradually subsides. When it is calm, Noye sends out a Raven, saying "If this foule come not againe/it is a signe soth to sayne/that dry it is on hill or playne." When the Raven fails to return, Noye knows that the bird has discovered dry land. He sends out a Dove, who eventually brings back an olive branch. Noah accepts this as a sign of deliverance, and thanks God. The Voice of God instructs everyone to leave the ark. As they do, the animals sing "Alleluias" and the people sing a chorus of praise: "Lord we thanke thee through thy mighte". God promises that he will never again destroy the earth with water, and produces a rainbow as his token. The cast begins Addison's hymn "The spacious firmament on high", with the congregation joining in the last two verses. All the cast depart except Noye, who receives God's blessing and promise of no more vengeance: "And nowe fare well, my darling deare" before his departure from the stage. ==Creation==

Writing Britten began detailed planning for the opera in August 1957, while sailing to Canada for a tour with the English Opera Group. He told Colin Graham, at that time the EOG's stage manager, that he wanted him to direct the new work. After a further meeting at Associated Rediffusion's London headquarters on 18 October, which he dedicated "To my nephew and nieces, Sebastian, Sally and Roguey Welford, and my young friend Ronald Duncan [one of Britten's godsons]". Performance requirements With the wide variety of child performers required in the opera, and in light of how it was cast and performed at its premiere, Britten detailed some of its specific requirements for performance in the vocal and study scores published by Boosey & Hawkes. The opera is intended for a large hall or church, not a theatre. The action should take place on raised rostra, though not on a formal stage set apart from the audience, and the orchestra should be placed in full sight, with the conductor in a position to conduct both the orchestra and, when performing the hymns, the congregation. Noye and Mrs Noye are sung by "accomplished singer-actors", and the Voice of God, although not necessarily a professional actor, should have "a rich speaking voice, with a simple and sincere delivery, without being at all 'stagey. The young amateurs playing the parts of Noye's children should be between 11 and 15 years old, with "well-trained voices and lively personalities"; Jaffet, the eldest, could have a broken voice. Mrs Noye's Gossips should be older girls with strong voices and considerable acting ability. The children playing the animals should vary in size, and range in age from seven to eighteen. The older age groups, with perhaps some broken voices, should represent the larger animals (lions, leopards, horses, camels etc.), while the younger play rats, mice and birds. There is a dance or ballet involving two child performers playing the roles of the raven and the dove. led by what Graham described as "the professional stiffening" of a piano duet, string quintet (two violins, viola, cello and bass), recorder and a timpanist. Britten also added – relatively late in the process of scoring the work – an ensemble of handbell ringers. According to Imogen Holst, a member of the Aldeburgh Youth Club brought Britten's attention to a local group of bellringers; hearing them play, Britten was so enchanted by the sound that he gave the ensemble a major part to play as the rainbow unfolds towards the end of the opera. Several commentators, including Michael Kennedy, Christopher Palmer and Humphrey Carpenter, have noted the affinity between the sound of Britten's use of the handbells and the gamelan ensembles he had heard first-hand in Bali in 1956. The scarcity of handbells tuned at several of the pitches required by Britten in the opera was to become an issue when the score was being prepared for publication. ==Performance history and reception==

Premiere The first performance of ''Noye's Fludde'' was staged during the 1958 Aldeburgh Festival, at St Bartholomew's Church, Orford, on 18 June. The conductor was Charles Mackerras, who had participated in several productions at past Aldeburgh festivals. The production was directed by Colin Graham, who also designed its set, with costume designs by Ceri Richards. Apart from Brannigan as Noye, two other professional singers were engaged: Gladys Parr, in her last role before retirement, sang the part of Mrs Noye, and the spoken Voice of God was provided by the Welsh bass Trevor Anthony. The other major roles were taken by child soloists, who were selected from extensive auditions. Among these was the future actor-singer, Michael Crawford, then 16 years old and described by Graham as "a very recently broken-voiced young tenor", who played the role of Jaffet. Martin Cooper of The Daily Telegraph noted: "The white walls of Orford Church furnished an ideal background to the gay colours of Ceri Richards's costumes and the fantastic head-dresses of the animals. In fact, the future of the work will lie in village churches such as this and with amateur musicians, for whom Britten has written something both wholly new and outstandingly original." The general critical reception was warmly enthusiastic. Felix Aprahamian in The Sunday Times called the performance "a curiously moving spiritual and musical experience". Eric Roseberry, writing in Tempo magazine, found the music "simple and memorably tuneful throughout ... the writing for strings, recorders and percussion is a miracle of inspiration". Several critics remarked favourably on the sound of the handbells. The Timess critic noted the effectiveness of Britten's setting of the mystery play: "It is Britten's triumph that in this musically slender piece he has brought to new life the mentality of another century by wholly modern means. These means included a miscellaneous orchestra such as he alone could conceive and handle". All four performances sold out on the first day of booking, even, as Britten told a friend, "before any advertisement & with 2000 circulars yet to be sent!!" gave what was billed as "the first amateur London performance" of the work, at All Saint's Church, Finchley; the cast included the operatic bass Norman Lumsden as Noah. In the United States, after a radio broadcast in New York City on 31 July 1958, the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary staged the US premiere on 16 March 1959. The following year saw the opera's Canadian premiere, conducted by John Avison, staged during the 1960 Vancouver International Festival in Christ Church Cathedral. During preparations for the first German performance of ''Noye's Fludde'' in Ettal, planned for May 1959, it became clear that they could not get the handbells called for in the score. Britten suggested that in the absence of handbells a set of tubular bells in E flat in groups of twos and threes could be played by four or six children with two hammers each to enable them to strike the chords. Britten was not present in Ettal, but he learned from Ernst Roth, of Boosey & Hawkes, that the Ettal production had substituted glockenspiel and metallophone for the handbells; according to Roth the bells in Carl Orff's Schulwerk percussion ensembles were "too weak" for the purpose. Britten later wrote to a friend: "I am rather relieved that I wasn't there! – no church, no bugles, no handbells, no recorders – but they seem to have done it with a great deal of care all the same. Still I rather hanker after doing it in Darmstadt as we want it – even importing handbells for instance." In the UK, Christopher Ede, producer of the landmark performances of the Chester mystery plays during the Festival of Britain, directed Noye's Fludde in Winchester Cathedral, 12–14 July 1960. Writing to Ede on 19 December 1959, Britten urged him to keep the staging of ''Noye's Fludde simple rather than elaborate. In 1971 the Aldeburgh Festival once again staged Noye's Fludde'' at Orford; a full television broadcast of the production, transferred to Snape Maltings, was made by the BBC, conducted by Steuart Bedford under the composer's supervision, with Brannigan resuming the role of Noah, Sheila Rex as his wife, and Lumsden as the Voice of God. , 11 August 2013 In 1972 Jonathan Miller directed his first opera with a production of ''Noye's Fludde'', staged during 21–23 December at the Roundhouse Theatre, London. The adult roles were taken by Michael Williams (God), Bryan Drake (Noah) and Isabelle Lucas (Mrs Noah), and the conductor was John Lubbock. Among less conventional productions, in September 2005 ''Noye's Fludde'' was performed at the Nuremberg zoo, in a production by the Internationales Kammermusikfestival Nürnberg involving around 180 children from Nuremberg and from England, directed by Nina Kühner, conducted by Peter Selwyn. A subsequent zoo production was presented in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by NI Opera and the KT Wong Foundation. The performance was directed by Oliver Mears and conducted by Nicholas Chalmers, with Paul Carey Jones as Noye and Doreen Curran as Mrs Noye. The same production was performed in China, in October 2012, at the Beijing Music Festival, this being the Chinese premiere of the work, and the first full performance of a Britten opera in China. It was performed again at the Shanghai Music In The Summer Air (MISA) Festival in July 2013. Britten's centenary year 2013 prompted numerous performances across the UK, including at Tewkesbury Abbey during the Cheltenham Music Festival, and the Thaxted Festival where 120 local children appeared as the animals. An Aldeburgh Festival production as a finale to the centenary year was staged in November, on the eve of Britten's 100th birthday anniversary, in his home town of Lowestoft. Andrew Shore appeared as Noye, and Felicity Palmer as Mrs Noye. It was directed by Martin Duncan and broadcast in the UK on BBC Radio 3 on 24 November. Outside the UK, several professional companies mounted centenary year productions involving local children, including the Santa Fe Opera, and the New Orleans Opera which mounted its first production of any Britten opera. ==Music==

''Noye's Fludde'' has been described by the musicologist Arnold Whittall as a forerunner of Britten's church parables of the 1960s, and by the composer's biographer Paul Kildea as a hybrid work, "as much a cantata as an opera". Most of the orchestral writing, says the music analyst Eric Roseberry, lies "well within the range of intelligent young players of very restricted technique". The opera begins with a short, "strenuous" instrumental prelude, which forms the basis of the musical accompaniment to the opening congregational hymn; its first phrase is founded on a descending bass E-B-F, itself to become an important motif. Humphrey Carpenter notes that throughout the hymn the bass line is out of step with the singing, an effect which, he says, "suggests an adult world where purity is unattainable". Mrs Noye and her Gossips enter to an F sharp minor distortion of the children's tune, which reflects their mocking attitude. The music which accompanies the construction work heavily involves the children's orchestra, and includes recorder trills, pizzicato open strings, and the tapping of oriental temple-blocks. The storm scene which forms the centre of the opera is an extended passacaglia, the theme of which uses the entire chromatic scale. In a long instrumental introduction, full rein is given to the various elements of the children's orchestra. Slung mugs struck with a wooden spoon give the sound of the first raindrops. Trills in the recorders represent the wind, strings impersonate waves, while piano chords outline the flood leitmotiv. Following God's instruction, the people and animals leave the ark singing a thankful chorus of Alleluias with more bugle fanfares in B flat. The appearance of the rainbow is accompanied by handbell chimes, a sound which dominates the final stages of the work. In the final canonical hymn, the main tune moves from F major to G major and is sung over reiterated bugle calls, joined by the handbells. In the third verse, the organ provides a brief discordant intervention, "the one jarring note in ''Noye's Fludde''" according to the musicologist Peter Evans. Graham Elliott believes that this may be a musical joke in which Britten pokes gentle fun at the habits of some church organists. The mingled chimes of slung mugs and bells continue during God's final valedictory blessing. As Noye leaves, the full orchestra provides a final fortissimo salute, the opera then concluding peacefully with B flat chimes of handbells alternating with extended G major string chords – "a hauntingly beautiful close", says Roseberry. ==Publication==

Several of the opera's novel features, including the use of a large amateur orchestra, and specifically its use of handbells, posed problems for Britten's publishers, Boosey & Hawkes. Ernst Roth made enquiries about the availability of handbells to the firm Mears & Stainbank (the bell foundry based in Whitechapel, London), and then wrote to Britten urging him to prepare an alternative, simplified version of ''Noye's Fludde'' for publication, since the rarity of handbells in the scale of E flat made the original score, in his view, impractical. Britten resisted such a proposal: "I think if you consider a performance of this work in a big church with about fifty or more children singing, you will agree that the orchestra would sound totally inadequate if it were only piano duet, a few strings and a drum or two." Britten suggested, rather, that Boosey & Hawkes should invest in a set of E flat handbells to hire for performances; or, that the handbells music could be simply cued in the piano duet part. After the score had been published, and in the face of an imminent performance in Ettal, Britten suggested that he could attempt to rewrite the music for a handbell ensemble in D, since sets in that key were more common than in E flat. Britten never prepared this alternative version for reduced instrumentation. and the vocal score, prepared by Imogen Holst (with the libretto translated into German by Prince Ludwig of Hesse and the Rhine under the pseudonym Ludwig Landgraf), was published in 1959. ==Recordings==

Notes References Sources • • • • • • • • • • • (ebook version, unpaginated) • • • • • • • • • • • • • ==Further reading==