ROBERT SAXTON

Robert Saxton: The Wandering Jew – Roderick Williams, BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra, André de Ridder

Saxton’s epic opera merges Christian and Jewish traditions in the myth of the eternal outsider, the Wandering Jew. Commissioned for broadcast by BBC Radio 3, the work features soloists including Roderick Williams, Tim Mirfin, Teresa Cahill, and Brindley Sherratt. The BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Orchestra are conducted by André de Ridder. Antony Pitts is responsible for the post-production.

‘The action shuttles through space and time, beginning in a Nazi death camp, going back to Jerusalem during the Roman occupation, then forward to Córdoba in the eleventh century and to the Venice carnival in the eighteenth, and including confrontations with Faust, Mephistopheles, Odin, and Kundry en route.’

The Guardian

Robert Saxton’s long-awaited radio opera, commissioned by the BBC, is a modernist take on the tale of the Wandering Jew - the shoe-mender condemned by Jesus to wander the Earth until the Second Coming after he refused to help him on his way to his Crucifixion. The opera introduces many legendary characters, following medieval and other myths, including Faust, Mephistoppheles, Kundry and Wotan. Underneath its surface lies a structure relating to the annual cycle of ewish and Christian festivals in eight scenes of sweeping orchestral and choral music, enhanced by studio post-production from Antony Pitts.