A Long Pull

I’ve never been the journaling type, but ever since I created this website, I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity it provides to say goodbye to projects that have been parts of my life for several months before they come to fruition somewhere in the world. This particular farewell is special, because the project in question – a revival of Calixto Bieto’s spectacular production of Rudi Stephan’s opera The First People for Dutch National Opera – was in the works for over a year, the longest preparation I can remember ever undertaking.

Apart from its complex story and difficult music that would take time to digest, I had personal and technical reasons for giving this engagement such a long runway:

Having had the pleasure of conducting Richard Strauss’s Salome twice, I knew that turn of the century German romantic music was very much in my wheelhouse and in the rarely performed The First People, I saw an opportunity to put my stamp on an old work in the spirit of new work – at least from the audience’s point of view, and wanted to really savour the experience. One consequence of this opera’s lack of regular performances due to the early death of the composer and perhaps also the Freudian incest-ridden story, is that the publisher was never motivated to commit resources to revising the material. So the score isn’t even engraved and presents the conductor with barely legible text, often uncertain notes and wobbly hand-drawn bar lines! As such, I felt the need to be genuinely ” off book” from the first rehearsal, especially since, as a revival, this show would be familiar to the entire cast and crew except for me!

But before I could even start staging rehearsals in Amsterdam, I had to get through my so-called “Cunch Zone”, a rare Christmas concert in The Hague with the Residence Orchestra, featuring a lovely programme that allowed me to add to my repertoire both Tchaikowsky’s First Symphony and Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto with the incredible Yeol Eum Son. With our last performance falling on December 23rd 2024 and staging rehearsals in Amsterdam commencing on the 27th, Stefan and I decided to spend Christmas in Amsterdam – the first time we’d ever been anywhere other than Germany or Trinidad over the holiday season! Amsterdam was admittedly cold and wet, but also incredibly magical nonetheless as a place to spend a uniquely cosy Christmas and an explosively spectacular New Year!

Unsurprisingly, The First People lived up to its long build up (see images below), becoming one of most thrilling operatic experiences I’ve ever had! From our wonderful cast to the incredible on-stage playing of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, this was a dream start to 2025!