Messiaen's Harawi

Howard Assembly Room, Leeds

The warm acoustic of Opera North's magnificent Victorian Gothic Howard Assembly Room adjoining the Grand Theatre bathed Olivier Messiaen's hour-long song-cycle Harawi in an iridescent glow.

Messiaen had composed Harawi in 1945 as the first instalment of his so called 'Tristran triology' inspired - like Wagner's Opera - by the celtic legend of Tristan and Isolde whose love could only be fulfilled in death.

The second part of Messiaen's triology is his sumptuously orchestrated Turangilila Symphony - performed just a few weeks ago in Leeds Town Hall.

Harawi's intimacy of scale - the work is scored for soprano and piano - somehow etches Messiaen's impressions of birdsong and monkey cries as vividly as could the full orchestral panoply.

At last week's luminous performance, the soprano Gweneth Ann-Rand and pianist Simon Lepper revealed the myriad colours of a shimmering sound-world suffused with Peruvian legend and folksong.

The poems, written by Messiaen himself, are in French interspersed with Andean Quetcha words that have a particular sound quality. For example, the repeated words Doundou tchill evoke the sound of ankle bells worn by ceremonial dancers.

Gweneth Ann-Rand's large and flexible voice admirably meets Messiaen's requirement for a dramatic soprano.

The singer's immense dynamic range channelled into her subtly hued colouring of the words held the audience in thrall from the first note to the final Mon amour, mon souffle! (My Love, my breath!) in the song Dans le noir (In the dark).

Messiaen's demanding writing for the piano contains so much of the scene painting of each song. The rich pianistic textures were wondrously balanced by Simon Lepper and always in perfect accord with the singer.

Images of nature projected onto the back wall perhaps offered glimpses of Messiaen's inspiration for Harawi. They certainly added a thought provoking visual dimension to this absorbing performance.

Geoffrey Mogridge