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by Tim Brady, directed by Darlene Spencer

New Music Concerts, The Music Gallery, Toronto

January 22-23, 2005

January 22, 2005, saw the Toronto premiere of the one-act chamber opera Three Cities in the Life of Norman Bethune by Montreal composer and guitarist Tim Brady at the Music Gallery under the aegis of New Music Concerts.  The work, commissioned by Radio-Canada in 2002, had its world premiere in Montreal in October 2003. 

For the libretto Brady interleaved extracts of Bethune’s letters and poetry with poetry by Dorothy Livesay and other contemporaries.  The work’s three sections each focused on Bethune’s sojourn in a different city--Montreal, where he saw poverty as the root of disease; Madrid, where he fought fascism and helped create an efficient medical service; and the Chin-Ch’a-Chi military district in China, where he fought Japanese imperialism, transformed the Chinese medical system and died in 1939 at age 49. 

One might think that such a dynamic subject, the mixture of poetry and prose and three contrasting settings would lead to a highly varied score.  However, Brady’s interest was not the specifics of Bethune’s actions but his present contemplation of them at the end of his life.  The result was a rather monochrome portrait.  Taped sounds briefly marked the local colour of each city but were not taken up by the ensemble.  Layers of sustained chords or minimalist rhythmic patterns accompanied a declamatory style given Bethune of uniform earnestness and narrow range.   

“Madrid” proved the work’s most vivid section.  Raphael Alberti’s ardent poem in praise of Madrid could become an excerptable aria.  The following spoken excerpt of Bethune’s pamphlet “The Evacuation of Malaga” counterpointed to great effect the rhythms of the spoken word and instrumental figuration.

Montreal-born baritone Michael Donovan’s performance, combining a richness of tone and great sensitivity to the text, was the prime source of the production’s success.  Pierre Simard led the amplified, eight-member Bradyworks, including Brady himself on electric guitar, in precise, vibrant reading of the score.  Darlene Spencer gave the piece a simple, efficient staging in the small space in front of the ensemble, but more likely a multimedia production using images of the period would be needed to bring the static work visually to life.  

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Opera Canada 2005-Spring.

Photo: Michael Donovan as Norman Bethune. ©Laurence Labat.