A beautiful way to capture the emotional story of Beethoven’s life alongside his incredible works
The dusky lighting of the stunning, partly outdoor Holland Park Opera venue was the perfect setting for the higgeldy piggedly stage where BEETHOVEN: I SHALL HEAR HEAVEN took place. The stage had ramps that ran down to a central platform which were used to demonstrate the ups and downs of the performance. In addition, the pianist and quartet were placed in a pit in the centre of the stage, reinforcing the message that music really was the soul of the play. As the sun set, the lighting changed, adding a level of ambience to the performance as we journeyed through Beethoven’s life.
The performance was narrated by two of Beethoven’s companions who transformed quickly into other characters as needed, with the writer of the play Tama Matheson playing Beethoven himself. The structure of the performance, with snippets of Beethoven’s life played out and punctuated by his incredible works was a beautiful way to explain the turbulence of his life and how this flowed into his music. The passionate monologues reinforced the pain and growth that Beethoven went through alongside his moments of enlightenment and the clever choices of musical direction highlighted this in his music as well. It was very interesting to see the change in musical style demonstrated with such clarity across the play. Whilst his life was fairly easy to follow, the narrative could have used a few more milestones to give a sense of direction to the play. As it was, the narrative occasionally felt that it was drifting.
The political backdrop of the time was cleverly interwoven as well. This gave further understanding to the idea that Beethoven’s innovative style was part of a wider revolution against the traditional ways. The way that Matheson delivered his impassioned monologues also showed the revolutionary spirit that lived in Beethoven. In addition to the passion and sorrow, there were light moments particularly brought by Robert Maskell and Suzy Kohane. On some occasions the delivery of Maskell’s comedic lines fell flat with the audience, but the majority gave welcome lighthearted moments. Whilst the two characters were meant to be writing Beethoven’s life and thus carried papers around, it also appeared that these were their scripts and there were a few hesitant moments as they searched for their lines which sometimes disrupted the flow.
The central feature of the performance was obviously the music and the brilliant quartet and incredibly talented Jayson Gillham did the storytelling justice with their skilled performance. It was a true joy to listen to. In particular the sensitivity of Gillham’s piano captured each moment of the documentation of Beethoven’s life with huge skill. It was also lovely to hear some different dynamics used for some of the more well known pieces making them unique to the performance. One musical element that felt slightly at odds was the choir who sat at the back of the stage throughout the performance. Whilst their crowning moment belting out Ode To Joy landed well, the choral piece that they sang to introduce the Second Act felt a bit weak and not required. It would be tempting to leave the choir offstage and bring them on solely for Ode to Joy to have more impact, and also to save their voices from the cold as the night drew into the partially outdoor space.
The Second Act itself also felt like it got off to a sluggish start. It may be that some of this narrative could have been cut to keep the attention of the audience. However, the narrative then went almost too far the other way with erratic scenes that felt somewhat jarring compared to the first act, in particular the courtroom scene. Whilst this somewhat captured the state of Beethoven’s life as he became more and more deaf, it could have been more inkeeping with the tone of the performance as a whole. Once again, however, the gravitas with which Matheson delivered Beethoven’s moments of enlightenment at the end truly did justice to the amazing musical talent and the change that he brought about for the age. A remarkable demonstration that showed exactly what Matheson saw when writing the play.