ACT II Gawain, on his way to the Green Chapel, finds shelter in the castle of Bertilak de Hautdesert. Bertilak issues him with another challenge: he will hunt for three days and exchange all he has caught for what Gawain can acquire in the castle. Spurred on by Morgan le Fay, Lady de Hautdesert tries to seduce Gawain while her husband is away. She gives him a sash with magical properties to protect him from death; he keeps it for his forthcoming confrontation with the Green Knight. Gawain is struck three times by the Knight, but is only grazed, and the Knight reveals himself to be Gawain’s host, Bertilak de Hautdesert. Gawain returns to Arthur’s court to be greeted as a hero. But knowing the truth to be otherwise – that he only survived the ordeal through the magic of the sash – he rejects the court’s empty praise and demands for tales of bravery and valour. The collective morale of the Round Table is punctured, and Morgan le Fay, who plotted all this, rejoices in her victory.
Music and Background
It’s no use pretending that this is easy listening. It isn’t; and the orchestral textures are so Wagnerian in scale and weight that you have to pay very careful attention to catch any of the words in performance. There are times when the whole score seems like a great machine grinding relentlessly away in an unbroken flow of (very noisy) sound. But repeated listening helps to sort out what’s going on – as is the case with any opera – and reveals the poetry within the punishment. Otherwise, Gawain packs a massive punch on stage; and the ritual theatre of the turning of the seasons at the end of Act I is a good example of the cyclic, ceremonial preoccupations of the composer.
Highlights
The arrival of the Green Knight on what Birtwistle calls a ‘noble pantomime horse’ is bizarre but breathtaking: you hear clip-clopping noises from the orchestra and in any other circumstance they might make you laugh. But not here. The effect is spine-tingling and awesome. For an example of how memorably melodic Birtwistle can be when he chooses, try Gawain’s repeated cries of ‘I’m not that hero’ in the final scene.
Did You Know?
Recommended Recording
Francois Le Roux, John Tomlinson, Marie Angel, Royal Opera, Covent Garden/Elgar Howarth. Collins Classics 7041-2. The only recording, taken live from the Covent Garden performances.
FORM: Opera in one act; in English
COMPOSER: Harrison Birtwistle (1934– )
LIBRETTO: Stephen Pruslin
FIRST PERFORMANCE: Aldeburgh, 8 June 1968
Principal Characters
Punch
Judy/Fortune Teller
Pretty Polly/Witch
Choregos/Jack Ketch
Lawyer
Doctor
Note: Punch and Judy takes the form of a prologue, four scenes and an epilogue, during which a violent re-enactment of the traditional Punch and Judy puppet story takes place.
Synopsis of the Plot
PROLOGUE The Choregos welcomes the audience.
SCENE 1 Punch rocks the baby and sings it a somewhat threatening lullaby before tossing it on the fire. When Judy comes in, Punch leads her to the Altar of Murder where he stabs her before the Choregos takes her to the gibbet. Punch then sets off on Horsey to find Pretty Polly, whom he discovers sitting on a pedestal under a green spotlight. Punch serenades Polly and presents her with a huge sunflower, but she is unimpressed, especially as the sunflower is damaged by the fire in which the baby died.
SCENE 2 Punch is confronted with his crime by the Lawyer and the Doctor. But Punch is too clever for them and leads them both to the Altar of Murder where he stabs the Doctor with a gigantic syringe and the Lawyer with a quill pen. They are both taken to the gibbet and Punch resumes his search for Pretty Polly. This time he finds her under a red spotlight, but again she refuses his gift, a jewel, because it is tainted by the suffering of Punch’s victims.
SCENE 3 The Choregos enters into the action and confronts Punch, but he, too, must die – sawn to death inside a double bass case. The death of the Choregos precipitates Punch into a nightmare, at the end of which he is beaten and taunted as he is confronted with his crimes. Resuming his search, Punch finds Pretty Polly’s pedestal, empty, under a blue spotlight.
SCENE 4 Punch is imprisoned and under sentence of death, but he tricks the Choregos, disguised as Jack Ketch, the hangman, into putting his own head into the noose. For this unintentional good deed Punch is reunited with Pretty Polly (bathed in white light), the gallows is transformed into a maypole and everyone (except the Choregos) is happy.
EPILOGUE The Choregos brings the proceedings to a close.
Music and Background
Punch and Judy tells a violently anarchic story in terms of the stylised ritual order of ancient Greek drama – hence the presence of a ‘Choregos’ (i.e. the Punch and Judy man) to present and stage-manage the action. All the music comes in self-contained, sometimes extremely short numbers strung together in the manner of Baroque opera and oratorio, with Bach’s St Matthew Passion as an admitted model. But the ultimate sound world of Punch and Judy is abrasively remote from Bach, with the small, on-stage band of just fifteen instruments often screaming shrilly at the far extremities of their pitch. Determined listeners appreciate its brilliant game-like invention and the sheer energy with which Birtwistle batters their ears.
Highlights
Hard to say, except that you need to catch onto the repeating patterns and sequences that work like aural signposts through the score. And there are windows of lyricism, as well as the relief of genuine jokes.
Did You Know?