Into the Little Hill
{{Short description|2006 UK opera}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox opera
| name = Into the Little Hill
| type = Chamber opera
| composer = George Benjamin
| image =
| image_upright =
| caption =
| librettist = Martin Crimp
| language = English
| based_on = legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin
| premiere_date = {{Start date|2006|11|22|df=y}}
| premiere_location = Opéra Bastille, Paris
}}
Into the Little Hill is a 2006 chamber opera by British composer George Benjamin.
Described by the composer as a "lyric tale in two parts", the libretto is by playwright Martin Crimp and it is Benjamin's first stage work.{{cite magazine|last=Mead|first=Rebecca|author-link=Rebecca Mead|title=How the Composer George Benjamin Finally Found His Voice |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/17/how-the-composer-george-benjamin-finally-found-his-voice|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=17 August 2020 |date=17 September 2018}} They have since collaborated on a further two operas, Written on Skin (2012) and Lessons in Love and Violence (2018). All three works draw upon medieval subject matter in some way, and Into the Little Hill is a modern retelling of the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Crimp has stated that he was introduced to Benjamin by musicologist Laurence Dreyfus.{{cite web |last1=Crimp |first1=Martin |title="Into the Little Hill" A work for stage by George Benjamin and Martin Crimp |url=https://www.ensemble-modern.com/en/mediatheque/texts/2006-10-01/into-the-little-hill-a-work-for-stage-by-george-benjamin-and-martin-crimp |website=Ensemble Modern |publisher=Ensemble Modern Newsletter No. 23 |access-date=15 February 2021 |date=October 2006}}
The piece was commissioned by Festival d'Automne à Paris. It premiered at Opéra Bastille on 22 November 2006, conducted by Franck Ollu, directed by Daniel Jeanneteau, and performed by Anu Komsi and Hilary Summers with instrumentalists from Ensemble Modern.{{cite web |last1=Clements |first1=Andrew |title=Into the Little Hill (Opéra Bastille, Paris) |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/nov/25/classicalmusicandopera1 |website=The Guardian |access-date=17 August 2020 |date=25 November 2006}} It has since been performed in over 100 productions in Europe, North America, China, Australia.{{cite web |title=Performances |url=https://www.fabermusic.com/performances?year=2021&_workId=4692 |website=Faber Music |access-date=17 August 2020}} It is approximately 40 minutes in length.
Scoring
=Roles=
Into the Little Hill is scored for one soprano and one alto, each representing different roles between scenes:
| class="wikitable" | |
| Soprano | Alto |
|---|---|
| The Crowd | The Crowd |
| The Stranger | Narrator |
| Narrator | The Minister |
| The Minister's Child | The Minister's Wife |
| The Children | The Mothers |
The use of two singers has drawn comparison with Herbert Parry's setting of Robert Browning's 1842 poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", which casts a tenor as the Piper and a baritone as the Mayor.{{cite news |last1=Porter |first1=Andrew |title=Small but perfectly charmed |url=https://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2597/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Newspapers&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=9&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=7&docId=GALE%7CEX1200556028&docType=Review&sort=Pub+Date+Forward+Chron&contentSegment=ZTLS-MOD1&prodId=TLSH&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CEX1200556028&searchId=R1&userGroupName=oxford&inPS=true |access-date=17 August 2020 |work=The Times Literary Supplement |date=27 February 2009 |page=18 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
Crimp's libretto uses a mixture of direct and reported speech. Elisabeth Angel-Perez describes this technique as "self-narration", noting its elision of more traditional operatic forms of recitative and aria as well as its extensive use in Written on Skin.{{cite journal |last1=Angel-Perez |first1=Elisabeth |title=Martin Crimp's Nomadic Voices |journal=Contemporary Theatre Review |date=3 July 2014 |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=353–362 |doi=10.1080/10486801.2014.921054|s2cid=194098708 |url=https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03377697/file/Martin%20Crimp%27s%20Nomadic%20Voices.pdf }}
Benjamin makes versatile use of vocal register for characterization. High, simple soprano writing is used to convey the innocence of the Child, while more extreme coloratura passages represent the other-worldliness of the Stranger.{{cite web |last1=Cadagin |first1=Joe |title=Benjamin: Into the Little Hill/Dream of the Song |url=https://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2017/11/Recordings/BENJAMIN__Into_the_Little_Hill/Dream_of_the_Song.html|work=Opera News|access-date=17 August 2020 |date=November 2017}} The alto line makes considerable use of low tessitura to convey the Minister's masculinity and the Mother's lamentations.
= Instrumentation =
- Bass flute (doubling flute and piccolo), two basset horns in F, contrabass clarinet
- Two cornets, trombone
- Cimbalom
- Percussion: cymbals, guiro, whip, 2 crotales
- Two violins (second doubling mandolin), two violas (second doubling banjo), two cellos, double bass (lowest string tuned to C)
Several reviewers have remarked upon Benjamin's orchestration, particularly the cimbalom's "eerie" quality and the unusual timbres of the contrabass clarinet and basset horn.{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Geoff |title=Into the Little Hill |url=https://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2597/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Newspapers&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=8&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm¤tPosition=5&docId=GALE%7CIF0503665856&docType=Review&sort=RELEVANCE&contentSegment=ZTMA-MOD2&prodId=TTDA&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CIF0503665856&searchId=R1&userGroupName=oxford&inPS=true |access-date=17 August 2020 |work=The Times |issue=69303 |date=21 April 2008 |page=82 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} The use of traditionally non-orchestral instruments such as the cornet, mandolin and banjo has been interpreted as an evocation of the folk origins of the story, while the extended obbligato passages on the bass flute imply the Pied Piper's flute.
Synopsis
=Part One=
The opera opens with the angry Crowd calling for the extermination of the rats in their town. The Minister suggests that they try to coexist peacefully with the rats, but the people insist singing, "kill and you have our vote".
At night, the Minister finds a mysterious man in his daughter's bedroom. The Stranger has "no eyes, no nose, no ears", and offers to charm the rats away in exchange for a large sum of money. The Minister offers to pay twice as much if he is re-elected, and the Stranger forces him to swear on the bargain by his sleeping child.
After an instrumental interlude, the Minister's Child asks the Mother why the rats have to die, becoming agitated as she describes them wearing clothes and carrying suitcases and babies. The Mother reassures her that they will "die with dignity".
=Part Two=
The Minister is re-elected and the Stranger comes to his office to collect his payment. When the Minister insists that the rats "chose to leave of their own free will" and refuses to pay, the Stranger reminds him of their bargain and leaves.
After another musical interlude, the townspeople discover that their children are missing. The Mother confronts the Minister, asking "where is my child?". The Children respond that they are "inside the Little Hill ... with the angel under the earth".
Critical reception
Into the Little Hill has been variously interpreted as a commentary on contemporary attitudes to immigration,{{cite web |last1=Church |first1=Michael |title=Into The Little Hill/Down By The Greenwood Side, ROH Linbury Theatre, London |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/into-the-little-hill-down-by-the-greenwood-side-roh-linbury-theatre-london-1625853.html |website=The Independent |access-date=15 February 2021 |date=19 February 2009}} a "satire on the way power corrupts" and "the tabloid fetishisation of the disappearance of children",{{cite web |last1=Service |first1=Tom |title=Into the Little Hill (CD booklet NI 5828) |url=https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/NI5828.pdf |website=Chandos |publisher=Nimbus Records |access-date=17 August 2020 |date=2008}} a metaphor for genocide,{{cite web |last1=Barnard |first1=John Marten |title=La Veronal heads Into the Little Hill in Madrid |url=https://bachtrack.com/review-benjamin-crimp-little-hill-veronal-teatros-del-canal-madrid-february-2020 |website=Bachtrack |access-date=17 August 2020 |date=17 February 2020}} a commentary on government cuts to arts funding,{{cite web |last1=Schweitzer |first1=Vivien |title=A Minimalist Pied Piper (Imagine, Please, Those Rats) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/arts/music/25benj.html |work=The New York Times|access-date=17 August 2020 |date=25 July 2007}} and a "parable about the power of music".{{cite news|last=Tommasini|first=Anthony|author-link=Anthony Tommasini|title=Oh Rats! Paying the Piper in an Opera: Calling on an ominous stranger with no eyes, ears or nose.|url=https://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2186/docview/848062953?accountid=13042|access-date=17 August 2020|work=The New York Times|date=28 July 2007|pages=B7, 11}}{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Because they are coded as socially undesirable and described with clothes and suitcases, the plight of the rats has been read by several commentators as a reference to the Holocaust.{{cite web |last1=Ozorio |first1=Anne |title=George Benjamin: Into the Little Hill, Linbury, London |url=http://www.operatoday.com/content/2010/07/george_benjamin.php |website=Opera Today |access-date=15 February 2021 |date=26 July 2010}}{{cite web |last1=Picard |first1=Anna |title=Speech Acts at the Courtyard, N1 |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/speech-acts-at-the-courtyard-n1-pnwrtzlgnxq |website=The Times |access-date=15 February 2021 |date=10 April 2015}}
Because of its ambiguous text and frequent role changes, the opera is usually staged very sparsely, and has been described as a "secular oratorio".{{cite web |last1=Lay |first1=Julius |title=Into the Little Hill : George Benjamin clôt le Festival Présences 2020 |url=https://bachtrack.com/critique-david-mundry-benjamin-ensemble-intercontemporain-festival-presences-maison-de-la-radio-auditorium-paris-fevrier-2020 |website=Bachtrack |access-date=15 February 2021 |language=French |date=19 February 2020}}
The opera has been widely well-received, described by Rupert Christiansen as "a startling miracle of originality".{{cite news |last=Christiansen|first=Rupert|author-link=Rupert Christiansen|title=A startling miracle of originality |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/3665885/A-startling-miracle-of-originality.html |access-date=19 August 2020|work=The Telegraph|location=London|date=17 June 2007}} Critics have praised the piece's concision of both Crimp and Benjamin's writing,{{cite web |last1=Clements |first1=Andrew |title=Into the Little Hill/Down By the Greenwood Side |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/feb/16/little-hill-greenwood-side-opera |website=The Guardian |access-date=15 February 2021 |date=16 February 2009}}{{cite news |last1=Damman |first1=Guy |title=How plural a thing is joy |url=https://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2608/apps/doc/EX1200552344/TLSH?u=oxford&sid=TLSH&xid=689547e5 |access-date=17 August 2020 |work=The Times Literary Supplement |date=16 July 2010 |page=18 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} favourably comparing the opera to chamber works by Benjamin Britten,{{cite news |last1=Carlin |first1=Francis |title=Into the Little Hill Bastille Amphitheatre, Paris |url=https://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2186/docview/249955388?accountid=1304 |access-date=17 August 2020 |work=Financial Times |date=28 November 2006 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Judith Weir and Harrison Birtwistle.{{cite web |last1=Whittall |first1=Arnold |title=Unsettling, nightmarish take on the Pied Piper grips like a vice |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/benjamin-into-the-little-hill |website=Gramophone |date=December 2008}}
Less positive reviews cite the alienating effect of the narrative style and its cryptic modes of expression, describing it as dramatically "non-committal".{{cite web |last1=Fanning |first1=David |title=Into the Little Hill: unmoved by Liverpool's highbrow offering |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/3672795/Into-the-Little-Hill-unmoved-by-Liverpools-highbrow-offering.html|work=The Telegraph|location=London|access-date=17 August 2020 |date=21 April 2008}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{George Benjamin}}
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Category:Operas by George Benjamin
Category:English-language operas
Category:Operas based on fairy tales