Strains of Victorian melancholy

May 26 2007 By The Journal

A once famous Victorian ballad is to be heard again in the latest remarkable happening at Belsay Hall in Northumberland.

The English Heritage mansion is already playing host to Picture House, a series of installations in the empty rooms created by artists, designers, film-makers, writers and musicians.

To complement the exhibition, English Heritage commissioned Opera North - regular visitors to the North-East - to produce a new work. The Leeds-based company in turn commissioned Tim Hopkins to create it.

The result is The Lost Chord, a choral and theatre piece inspired by a ballad credited to Arthur Sullivan, one half of the famous musical partnership of Gilbert and Sullivan.

The Lost Chord originated as a poem by Adelaide Anne Procter. It was set to music by Sullivan in 1877, making it contemporary with the Middleton family's residency of Belsay Hall which inspired many of the contributors to Picture House.

Sullivan composed the music to The Lost Chord as his beloved brother Frederick lay dying. The ballad is also associated with his mistress, Fanny Ronalds, who often sang it at society functions.

It became the most frequently performed of all Sullivan's works but faded into obscurity over time.

Tim Hopkins says: "The piece is about a search for completeness and how music can help us retrieve and rediscover the emotional echoes of lost human contact.

"It was an ideal starting point for a performance piece at Belsay because the hall is an abandoned home, rich with an atmosphere of loss and memory.

"As a building it has an architectural conflict between the grandeur of the design and its intended function as a family house full of domestic human life. This conflict is reflected in the themes of The Lost Chord."

He adds: "This is the first time I have worked in a building like Belsay. My background is in opera direction and usually that involves working in conventional theatre spaces.

"The Hall offers some exciting possibilities, creating a setting for a three-dimensional yet intimate singing-based entertainment with the audience as part of the performance. Everyone who attends will have a different perspective, a different connection to the performers, freed in this instance from the traditional theatre context.

"The piece has two parts, one using the technology of Sullivan's day and the other using film, reflecting the range of approaches taken by artists in the exhibition."

The 45-minute piece will be performed three times throughout the summer, on June 2, July 7 and September 8 at 7pm, before small audiences of just 35 people.

The ticket price of £45 per person includes dinner and a private tour of the Picture House exhibition. To book, tel. 0870 333 1183.