the times | Wednesday April 8 2020 1GM 3
News
Suspending the flautists in mid-air will
be a challenge, the director admitted.
And yes, the Prince of Wales is to blame.
Prince Charles has played a pivotal
role in the discovery of an unknown op-
era by one of Britain’s leading postwar
composers, which is now to be staged.
Krishna was one of John Tavener’s
final projects before his death at 69 in
2013 but the manuscript remained
“hidden” with a publisher until Taven-
er’s widow told Charles of its existence.
Last year the prince, who had a long
friendship with Tavener and is a patron
of the Welsh National Opera, brought
the work to the attention of Sir David
Pountney, then its artistic director.
“It is an incredible discovery,” Pout-
ney told The Times. “It is very beautiful,
mystical music. It does have some quite
demanding specifications though.
There are 14 flutes in one scene, some of
whom are meant to be suspended
in air [in a halo above Krishna]. We will
RICHARD LEWISOHNGrange Park Opera will stage the tale of Krishna at its base in Surrey, having
been alerted to the piece through Prince Charles’s friendship with John TavenerTavener has been one of Britain’s most
influential composers since the release
in 1968 on the Beatles’ Apple label of
The Whale, a “dramatic cantata”. His
contemporary John Rutter said that
Tavener was “absolutely touched by
genius at every point”. As well as being
twice nominated for the Mercury Prize,Tavener won a Grammy in 2002. Many
of his compositions have been played at
landmark occasions.
In 1997 his Song for Athene was sung
at the funeral of Princess Diana. He
dedicated one of his pieces, Fall and Res-
urrection, to the prince, the two having
bonded over their religious beliefs.
According to Grange Park Opera, the
cycle of Krishna is portrayed in 15
vignettes “expounding a Blakean
philosophy that in any part of the uni-
verse is the whole universe”. It uses a
“Celestial Narrator” to bridge the
supernatural and the natural.
Tavener wrote of the charac-
ter: “He describes each scene
in the simplest possible way.
He moves freely in the audi-
ence, explaining the dou-
ble meaning, charming,
frightening and consoling
us. The music is intensely
vivid and highly dramatic.”
It certainly will be for the
halo of flautists.Rise of Krishna!
Charles helps
to resurrect lost
mystical opera
have to find out how we can realise
this.”
After reading the manuscript he con-
tacted Wasfi Kani, chief executive of
Grange Park Opera, who he said would
be “daring” enough to stage the two-
and-a-half-hour opera, which focuses
on the cycle of the Hindu deity’s life.
She said that within two days she was
examining the 358 “giant sheets” of the
manuscript. “It quickly became clear
that this was a masterpiece that needed
to be brought to life,” Ms Kani said yes-
terday. She is committed to staging
world premieres at Grange Park Op-
era’s “Theatre in the Woods” summer
season in West Horsley, Surrey, and
said that in the present climate the
story of Krishna was “apposite”.
“Krishna is born when the Earth is
crying for help,” she said. Ms Kani
said that the opera would be staged
in 2024 and directed by Pountney
and that she was searching for col-
laborators in Europe and Asia, as
well as “Indian philanthropists”.y p 8 2020 1GM
David Sanderson Arts Correspondent
Note reveals
patriotic
poet was a
Dutch spy
Jack Malvern
In the 17th century Andrew Marvell
built a reputation as a poet and a
patriot, celebrated for his amorous
verse and loyalty to his country. The
second of these is now in doubt after the
discovery of a document that identifies
him as a spy for the Dutch.
Marvell is best known for To His Coy
Mistress, a man’s entreaty to his reluc-
tant lover, but he was also an MP during
the reign of Charles II, when England
was often at war with the Dutch. Hist-
orians had speculated about Marvell’s
sympathies, but the evidence relied on
the word of William Carr, a Dutch
double-agent known for tall tales.
Carr claimed that Marvell travelled
to the Netherlands in the 1670s under a
pseudonym to meet William of
Orange, later William III of England.
Edward Holberton, an English lec-
turer at Bristol University, was shocked
to find fresh evidence in a pamphlet
written by Marvell in 1676, two years
after the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
In the margin was a handwritten note
pointing out a passage that the Church
of England regarded as being “sedition
and the defamation of the Christian
religion”. Clergymen had the pamphlet,
entitled Mr Smirke, banned and its
printer punished. Marvell then sent the
annotated pamphlet to William Free-
man, an Englishman living in the
Hague who was part of a spy network
set up by William of Orange. The spies
sought to influence politicians in
London to be more sympathetic to the
Dutch and achieved success when par-
liament refused the king’s request for
more funds for Anglo-Dutch fighting.
Dr Holberton, who has written about
the discovery in the forthcoming edi-
tion of the Times Literary Supplement,
chanced across the note and matched
the handwriting to Marvell. “The fact
that Marvell is sending this to William
Freeman is a smoking gun,” he said.
Dr Holberton said that Marvell’s
reputation should be re-examined.
“There is even a Marvell monument in
Holborn [central London] that
celebrates him as a patriot.”
Leading article, page 27