Noye's Fludde

Benjamin Britten’s music, which can be so emotionally fraught in his works for professional musicians, becomes radiantly simple and certain when written for amateur and especially child performers. Chief among these is his ambitious one-act opera of 1958, Noye’s Fludde. Based on the 15th-century Chester Mystery Play, it tells the story of Noah’s Ark: the storm, the building of the boat, the animals saved, and finally the arrival of the dove and God’s promise never to send another flood. Writing for a mixture of adults and children, professionals and amateurs, Britten creates some wonderfully distinctive effects. A row of mugs, struck with a wooden spoon, supply resonant raindrops as the storm begins, and handbells create the hazy glow of the rainbow. At key moments, audience and cast join in singing well-known hymns, including “Eternal Father, Strong to Save”, embellished and layered in characterful arrangements that resonate even in what follows in the opera. The solo writing is equally carefully drawn. There’s hot-headed Mrs Noah, who would rather stay on dry land and share a drink with her beloved Gossips than risk her life in a boat, and staunch, faithful Noah, his three lively sons and their wives. Noye’s Fludde ends with a processional performance by the entire company of “The Spacious Firmament on High”—set to the serenely majestic melody of Thomas Tallis’ Canon—which swells then fades gradually into the distance. It is a powerful statement of hope, a musical prayer for the future of humanity.