Rafael Payare, conducting the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, delivered a taut and committed performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s turn-of-the-century cantata trilogy The Song of Hiawatha at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. Festival director Nicola Benedetti’s bold programming of these once-popular Victorian cantatas paid off, with a crisp chorus and strong soloists under Payare’s direction.
Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha: A Victorian Cantata Revisited
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s The Song of Hiawatha, a cantata trilogy composed around the turn of the 20th century, was a major success in its time, packing the Albert Hall for weeks on end between the wars. However, the work presents significant challenges for modern audiences. The score, though charming, is unmistakably Victorian. More problematic is the libretto, drawn from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, which consists of over 800 lines of trochaic tetrameter (described as “Rum-ti Rum-ti Rum-ti Rum-ti”). The story itself is challenging, depicting the Native American Hiawatha endorsing the colonisation of his country by “people with white faces”.
Payare’s Conduction: Commitment and Verve
Rafael Payare, who had not known Hiawatha before Benedetti invited his Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal to give the Edinburgh International Festival premiere, conducted with commitment and verve. His tightly coiled yet expansive gestures never let the tension drop. The occasional drawbacks of his approach—such as denying soloists flexibility and space, and not guiding the chorus towards longer phrases and quieter singing—were outweighed by the rewards. Payare highlighted the cantatas’ thematic and tonal connections and was alert to their dancelike character.
Chorus and Soloists: Clear Textures and Dramatic Momentum
Hiawatha is demanding for the chorus, which sings many notes and must conjure up the scenery, as Longfellow tells rather than shows. The Edinburgh Festival Chorus, meticulously prepared by James Grossmith, produced clear textures and crisp diction. However, tenors and basses dispatched lines with such aplomb that upper voices sometimes seemed underpowered by comparison.
Only the third cantata, Hiawatha’s Departure, permits the soloists to embody genuine characters, and here the performance gained dramatic momentum. Soprano Francesca Chiejina displayed a radiant upper register and a steely core sound but remained score-bound. Baritone Christopher Maltman’s moving rendition of Hiawatha’s farewell harnessed the weary authority of his Wotan. Tenor Nicky Spence injected proceedings with welcome theatricality—greeting the chorus like comrades before his bravura aria in Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, enjoying the banter as he couldn’t convince them he’d seen a flood, and conveying the sheer weirdness of his invocations of Jesus and Mary.
Verdict: Musical Riches Justify Bold Programming
So did it work? Almost. Hiawatha’s eccentric dramaturgy and questionable politics mean it will never return to the regular repertoire, but the musical riches unveiled by Payare more than justified Benedetti’s bold decision to programme it.
