'Le Vin Herbé', by Frank Martin
Laidlaw Music Centre, St Andrews, 20/6/2025
Byre Opera, Dr Michael Downes, Director of Music
Frank Martin is one of those composers of whose existence you are aware, but of whose work you know astonishingly little. Such was my situation on Friday 20th June when I arrived at the Laidlaw Music Centre in St Andrews for the first night of Martin's opera/oratorio, 'Le Vin Herbé' (The Love Potion), put on by Byre Opera. The Swiss composer lived from 1890-1974, was educated in Geneva but spent a large part of his life in the Netherlands . His music owed a lot to Schoenberg but remained largely tonal, and I was intrigued by the sound world he created.
From 2008 to 2018, I was privileged to be the Honorary Professor of Singing at St Andrews University but hadn't been back to see how the Byre Opera had evolved in the intervening years. I am delighted to report that it is thriving under the direction of Dr Michael Downes, the Director of Music, who conducted tonight's performance and will conduct two more on 21st and 22nd June.
A very decent crowd had turned up on a beautiful summer's evening, even though most of the students have dispersed for the vacation, and we were treated to a fascinating evening of mid-20th century music .
The story is essentially a retelling of the mediaeval legend of Tristan and Isolt but approached from an angle as far removed from Richard Wagner as could be imagined. Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde' is of course one of the seminal works of all time and Martin made no attempt to imitate or comment on that opera which took the world by storm in 1865. Set in French, and based closely on Joseph Bédier's 1900 novel, 'Le Roman de Tristan et Iseult', it was composed from 1938-1941, and first heard as an oratorio in 1942 in Zürich. It was only 6 years later, at the Salzburg Festival, that it was fully staged.
Byre Opera in St Andrews, the highly creative little company guided by Michael Downes, and using predominantly undergraduate singers from the University, has done well to choose Martin's quirky piece as its annual show. Directed by the innovative Kally Lloyd-Jones, designed by Janice Hart, and brilliantly lit by the vastly experienced Davy Cunningham, the professional orchestra of 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, double bass and piano (the talented Kristine Donnan) provided a firm foundation for the young vocal ensemble of 12 singers. The sonority provided by the orchestra was delicious, the lower strings beautifully matched by the uppers, superbly led by Ben Shute.
Inevitably with a student vocal ensemble, there are going to be some immature voices on display, but Martin's extremely adventurous setting, with large parts of the plot delivered by a Greek chorus of 12 singers, worked marvellously well. The women on the whole provided the most impressive singing, with stand-out performances by Selma Bystrand – (Straumits/ Brangain) and Emily Kemp (Isolt of the White Hands). (These mediaeval legends are notorious for having multiple people with similar names.) Isolt the Fair was splendidly sung and acted by the excellent Pavlina Ivanova, a name definitely to watch out for in the next few years. Amongst the men Seb Roberts delivered a fine Tristan, his light and flexible young tenor voice just about up to the demands of this big role, while his acting developed throughout the evening up to and including his tragic death. Guy Minch gave a very good account of the baritone role of King Mark, and there was a terrific cameo of Tristan's faithful servant, Kaherdin, by the countertenor, Ben Hayes. What was a countertenor doing in a Central European, mid-century French opera, you may well ask? This was but one example of the conductor's judicious adaptation of the various roles to suit the vocal skills of the young student singers. It was a triumphant success.
There are further performances on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd June at 1930 and 1430 respectively, at the Laidlaw Music Centre.
