Review: Herod & the Slaughter of the Innocents; National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) (From York Press)

Review: Herod & the Slaughter of the Innocents; National Centre for Early Music (NCEM)

1:17pm Friday 22nd June 2007 in Music news and reviews By Martin Dreyer

Staging a 900-year-old musical play is no picnic. The recipe includes acres of plainsong - all but extinct in modern liturgies - and Latin, a language no longer chic in the curriculum.

None of which daunted Mary E Larew and her new ensemble, Viriditas, in two related tales from the 12th-century Fleury Playbook, staged twice this week. The neurotic Herod's murderous activities are historical fact. But the liturgy surrounding Holy Innocents' Day is no longer common currency. Larew's enterprise, triumphantly successful, was to make both accessible simultaneously.

The plays built towards a powerful climax in Rachel's extended lament over the dead children. Here the music forsakes smooth melody and behaves more like an aria. Robin Bier brought a touching commitment, and no little fluency, to her monologue.

Herod's throne and Jesus's manger faced each other at opposite ends of the church. Movement - of shepherds, soldiers, magi and children - was mainly tableau-like, mirroring stained glass windows, or slow and deliberate. Variations on this made an impact. The jittery hocus-pocus of Herod's scribes, with their snaky headdresses, was witty, the perpetual motion of the children's dance distracting.

The trio of Magi broke neatly into harmony, varying the musical diet. But the wisdom of having a quartet new to their instruments was not immediately apparent. Its output was apologetic. Nevertheless, this was a brave and attractive show, intelligibly sung and carrying a powerful ring of medieval truth.

* There is a further performance at St Chad's Church, Leeds, on July 11, at 9pm