The Academy of St Mary-le-Bow kicks off its new season with two great works, music from Bartok's ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin and Rimsky-Korsakov's ever popular Scheherazade. Both pieces, though composed only 36 years apart, are musically very different, but both portray the struggle between violent, entitled men and the women they wish to take as their lovers. In both instances the women ultimately prevail, but with differing outcomes and at what cost? Bartok's ballet was initially banned after its first performance in 1926. The arresting score viscerally evokes the violence of the plot, which sees a girl forced to dance to lure men to a mugging. One of the men's obsession with her deifies even death, and despite being stabbed three times, won't die. It is only when the girl allows him to touch her that his lust is satisfied and he finally falls to the floor and begins to bleed.
The richness and beauty of Rimsky-Korsakov's stunning score might lead one to think that Scheherazade is a great love story in which a king falls in love with a storyteller over the course of a thousand and one nights. The majority of the music does in fact portray the dramatic stories that Scheherazade tells, however only a few points in the score allude to the fact that she is telling these stories to save herself from a brutal beheading. The king has vowed to K*ll each new wife he takes, the morning after their wedding night, so they don't have the opportunity to be unfaithful. Scheherazade (who is represented by a solo violin) saves herself from the fate of previous wives by telling a new story each night, ending on a cliff hanger at dawn, only to be concluded the next night when a new story is started. Once she has run out of stories, the king has already fallen in love with her and spares her.
The orchestra will perform in the stunning surroundings of St James's Sussex Gardens and will be conducted by their Musical Director, Alex Fryer.
Event Venue
St James' Church Sussex Gardens, St James Paddington, Sussex Gardens, London, W2 3UD, United Kingdom,London, United Kingdom
Tickets