Tarka takes Exeter by storm

Exeter Cathedral was transformed into a rural scene on Tuesday evening when HRH the Countess of Wessex attended the first night performance of Tarka the Opera, a specially commissioned work for the Two Moors Festival.

The audience were treated to a cast of professional musicians and singers alongside the Dorchester Choral Society and school children from four Exeter schools in a two hour performance of the opera. The Countess (pictured above) who is patron of the Festival, arrived at the Royal Clarence Hotel on Cathedral Green where she met Festival organisers, sponsors and patrons. Then she made her way to the Cathedral for the performance.

The Cathedral was transformed into a rural scene complete with a bridge, trees and plants for a performance in the round. Even the orchestra and chorus were in costume as the actors and singers wove in and out of the spaces. Children from the Maynard Junior School, St Leonard’s Primary School, Ladysmith School and Woodward Academy Hounds played the parts of ducks and eels in an imaginative recreation of Henry Williamson’s much loved book, Tarka the Otter.

The Countess took time to chat to the young performers and clearly enjoyed the evening. She has been a regular visitor to the Festival since she became patron.

The opera was first commissioned by festival organizers Penny and John Adie when they found themselves stuck in a traffic jam in London’s Bayswater Road. They’d been trying to find a work that would lend itself to the local community performing alongside professional musicians. Inspiration came in that traffic queue when they made the decision to commission a work themselves and Tarka the Otter became the perfect choice.
‘It was such a magnificent work that we thought it was time for a new production in a completely different venue,’ said Mrs Adie, Two Moors Festival artistic director. ‘So here we are nine years later in a completely different and magnificent setting.'

Composed by Stephen McNeff, Tarka was first performed at Rosemoor RHS Garden in 2006, receiving a four star review from the Times newspaper who dubbed it ‘a real corker of a piece’.

This new production was directed by singer and stage director Thomas Guthrie, who sang the part of the officer in the original production. It was conducted by Nicholas Cleobury who has worked with all the major UK orchestras and in concert halls all over the world.

Two Moors Festival has been celebrating its 15th anniversary this year with 29 concerts across 16 venues in Devon and Somerset. There will be more festival action in the Cathedral on Friday when stage and screen actor Simon Callow joins forces with the Orchestra of the Swan as narrator in a performance of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. the orchestra will also be playing Beethoven and Stravinsky. The festival concludes on Sunday with a special recital in Dulverton, Somerset by legendary Russian pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja.

For information please visit www.thetwomoorsfestival.com