The Leader and other works is a new record of music by Karim Al-Zand. The most substantial piece is the one act chamber opera The Leader based on Ionesco’s 1955 play Le Maître. A reporter and two devoted fans follow the Leader wherever he goes mesmerised by his often absurd antics. A young couple is gradually drawn into the fascination.
The Leader does ridiculous things. he dances with a hedgehog. He has his trousers pressed in public. Finally it’s revealed that he no head. Instead he has “genius”. None of this shakes the loyalty of his followers. One imagines that Ionesco had the European dictators of the 1930s in mind but, of course, one can substitute whichever half absurd, half sinister populist neo-Fascist one chooses.
Details are now available for Opera 5’s double bill Suffragette featuring the works of Dame Ethel Smyth. The show will feature two works; Fête Galante, a rather grim “dance dream”, in a somewhat Stravinskian style, and the feminist opera The Boatswain’s Mate, which makes extensive use of folksong tunes. In her day Smythe tended to be written off by the critics for being too masculine so it will be interesting to see how the works have fared with time.
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