The Michael Nyman Band, Paul McGrath - Man and Boy: Dada (2005)

Michael Nyman's 2004 opera Man and Boy: Dada is a fictionalized account of the end of Dada artist Kurt Schwitters' life when he was living in poverty in London after the Second World War. It's appropriate that, while Michael Hastings' engaging libretto follows a comprehensible narrative, it has enough Dada elements to leave listeners occasionally scratching their heads, but in a good way. The story concerns Schwitters' relationship with a boy (with whom he is brought together by a shared obsession with bus tickets) and the boy's mother. The music is vintage Nyman, heavily influenced by minimalist textures and repetitive patterns. In each scene of the opera he tends to set up a groove, usually thickly orchestrated, that continues for while, sometimes throughout the scene. With this approach, the music doesn't always follow the dramatic arc of the scene with the subtlety that characterizes the most compelling operatic writing. Taken on its own terms, though, the music is often effective -- driving, lively, and colorful -- and the vividness with which the characters are drawn makes the opera an engaging emotional experience. Nyman's text setting here tends to be somewhat stiff, due to his avoidance of long-held notes and melisma. There's one terrific, memorable tune, a sentimental tango, that appears with gratifying frequency throughout the opera. The piece receives a fine performance based on a production by the Almeida Opera, featuring the Michael Nyman band conducted by Paul McGrath. Tenor John Graham-Hall, soprano Vivian Tierney and boy soprano William Sheldon sing passionately and embody the characters with conviction. The sound is clean and bright, but the balance is a little heavy on the instruments.