The English Touring Opera’s last performance of Paul Bunyan presented itself as a perfect opportunity to enjoy some live evening entertainment while justifying the occasion as revision for the largely Britten-based exam I am due to sit in five days. The director’s pre-show appearance on stage to announce the ensemble’s recent Olivier Award raised audience expectations higher than they already were; even so, the cast and orchestra did not disappoint. 

Paul Bunyan is an operetta in two acts by Benjamin Britten, following the folklore of the eponymous oversized lumberjack and the crew he recruits to help log and live in their American country barn house. It is difficult to say how applicable the term ‘operetta’ is to this work – the show is structurally episodic, switching between traditionally operatic formats, entirely spoken scenes in thick, Broadway accents (with only incidental music, if any at all), informally performed ‘sing-songs’ with just the cast and an onstage guitar (the cast sat in a circle as if around a campfire, mimicking the way the stories and legends of American folklore may have been told). There is even a lamenting, night-time jazz scene complete with combo rhythm section and growling brass, reminiscent of Porgy and Bess. It comes as no surprise that there were initially plans to stage the show as a musical on Broadway.

The show was creatively interpreted and excellently executed. It made practical sense for a touring ensemble to stage the entire performance in the barn, sacrificing the original opening in the American outdoors. The trees that introduce the work at the start were represented instead by cast members holding planks of wood from the barn, while three cast members waved their shoes in the air in place of the three swans’ flapping wings. The symbolism of this opening would have been clear through prior research; however, I fear that much of the innovativeness and inventiveness of this redesign may have been lost on audience members less familiar with the story.

Some of the director’s reinterpretation, however, did the story more than justice. In particular, the inclusion of a laptop, as one of the gifts Paul Bunyan brings back to the men in the barn, was a simple yet effective way of making the themes of the story relevant to our time – just as Britten’s inclusion of jazz and Broadway themes intended to bring the original folk tale up to date. The set itself was imaginatively constructed, with lights shining from behind it through cracks in the wood that enveloped the audience in the dark, murky shadows of what one imagines an unclean countryside barn to look like. The orchestra were for the most part flawless, and (perhaps with the help of electronic amplification) perfectly balanced with the cast.

It was the production’s cast however, along with the originality of its direction, which especially made the performance for me. The singing was not only technically impressive but also wonderfully expressive, with consistently clear diction (there were two television screens displaying the words of Auden’s libretto but I found myself not using it as much as I have in other operas) and emotive facial expressions.

It is often the case that an opera’s downfall either lies in its clarity or acting, but neither of these seemed to pose a problem for this impressive, humorous and refreshing performance from the English Touring Opera.