“I am so grateful for the opportunity you give to see rare repertory that I’d not otherwise get to see.”

New Sussex Opera, with their laudable track record of reviving long forgotten and obscure operatic repertoire, bring this work to life in a semi-staged performance in unobtrusive modern dress at various ecclesiastical venues in their home county, not far off from the formal beginning of the Advent and Christmas season. Such locations emphasise the nature of the piece as, effectively, a sacred opera, based as it is on one of the mediaeval mystery plays which were designed to bring the incidents of the Bible to the people in vivid, dramatic form…

In keeping with that demotic, popular ethos Boughton’s score is largely inspired by folksong (punctuated by his arrangements of various carols as choral interludes) though the style is more jaunty than similar music by Vaughan Williams, for example. But the performance in church raises its solemnity as an almost sacramental ritual, especially in the colourful environment of St Saviour’s Church in Eastbourne… 

Space is also well exploited by having the choir sing the a cappella first pair of choral interludes from behind the audience.

The mixture of professional and amateur singers here also cultivates the approachable aspect of the mystery plays – the drama is played out mainly among the four named major parts taken by prominent singers, while NSO stalwarts take the more generic roles. Where Mae Heydorn’s angel Gabriel hails from the heavens with a full-throated, vibrato-laden clarion summons to Mary, and James Beddoe is a commanding and hearty, rather than defensive, Herod, Mehreen Shah and Thomas Stevenson are more calmly cheerful as the more human couple, Mary and Joseph, at the centre of the story. Only two of Boughton’s three Shepherds are deployed here, and the Wise Men become Women instead, their music transposed up, thereby contrasting the brightness and formality of the latter with the Shepherds’ earthier goodwill. 

In this uncredited arrangement of the music for piano alone, Phillip Sear accompanies discreetly but attractively, providing unflagging momentum and often subtle, rippling support like a harp, but injecting more dramatic impetus when necessary. Hilary Selby’s conducting makes the most of a charmingly unpretentious score.” Curtis Rogers