Conor Mitchell - The Necklace
The Belfast Ensemble, 2025
Conor Mitchell, Chanice Alexander-Burnett, Christina Bennington, Mark Dugdale, Darren Franklin, Kara Lane, Charlie McCullagh, Ciara Mackey, Tom O’Kelly, Nigel Richards, Brigid Shine
Lyric Theatre, Belfast - 9th March 2025
You never know quite what to expect next from Conor Mitchell and the Belfast Ensemble. Recent experience would suggest something bold and provocative, something that stretches the boundaries of the lyric stage (at the Lyric Theatre), dealing with topical subjects that we can all recognise as being up-to-date and as pressing and relevant as those on this evening's news. So the proposal to produce a musical based on the Maupassant story, The Necklace (La Parure), and only present it in a one-off concert performance seemed a little lightweight and not at all the kind of cutting edge musical theatre you would expect from this composer. Needless to say we got a lot more than we expected.
But before the musical got underway, the audience was also treated to a short tongue-in-cheek introductory music lesson from Conor Mitchell, who was conducting this premiere performance of the work at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Essentially what he wanted us to be aware of was the importance of the cadence in everything from Wagner to Sondheim by way of Beethoven. He also mentioned a forthcoming new opera to be presented at the Dublin Theatre Festival later this year and how he now had come from seeing opera and musicals as not all that different to now consider them as distinct or at least "distant cousins". Personally, largely due to Mitchell's previous works, my journey would have come from the opposite direction, not really having much interest in musicals but coming to the view that it all depends on the musical and the composer. If done right, regardless of the compositional and presentational elements, a piece of good music theatre can be just as effective and just as musically sophisticated as an opera. That at least was brilliantly demonstrated in The Necklace.
The plot itself is indeed not all that complicated and can be summed up fairly easily. Set in Paris in the late 19th century, Camille Loisel is dissatisfied with 'making do' and wishes that her husband, a humble civil servant often looked down on because of his Prussian origins, would work harder at improving their social status. He manages to get them an invitation to an exclusive party with a Countess, and they spend a great deal of money borrowed from a loan shark just to get Camille a suitable dress for the occasion. Camille despairs however when realises that she can't go to such an event without jewellery to show off, and borrows a diamond necklace from an old friend, Madame Forestier. Unfortunately Camille loses the necklace and, in an effort to replace it without Madame Forestier knowing, she and her husband run up a huge debt that destroys their lives trying to pay it off.
As far as cadence goes, Mitchell's recommendation was to just trust your ears in the assurance that the composer has all the musical elements in place that will lead you through the work to its necessary resolution without you having to analyse or think too hard about it. And that was good advice, as far as it goes. It might sound like what happens in between is less important, jokingly glossed over by Mitchell as a lot of filling in and clever showing-off on the part of the composer, but what he rather breezily dismisses is actually how the composer uses other musical techniques to turn what might otherwise be a lightweight story into something of greater gravity and deeper resonance. There are other dramatic cadences in the characters and their stories also, each leading up to and culminating in the work's conclusion. The twist punchline there might now be seen as a little too pat, the familiarity of the convention feeling like it has been employed to give the work a little more dramatic weight and poignancy that hasn't been sufficiently explored in the character development, so it's left to the composer to grace it with musical depth that reveals more about the human side. And Mitchell doesn't rely on just the cadence to do that either.
Each of the characters in this musical version of The Necklace have their own little introductions, wishes and dreams and their lives undergo a journey to different conclusions from the Loisels. The maid Colette dreams of love, in adoration of her Alain, and if it doesn't climb to the heights that she dreams of they nonetheless achieve a satisfaction or a drive in their lives with their children that keeps them going. Madame Forestier - the owner of the necklace - has already been disillusioned with life, which is ultimately proved to be 'fake' and she lives with that reality, seeking to improve the lives of others. Even Vernier, the loan shark, has his own justifications and accommodations that allow him to live his life this way. Mitchell's lightness of touch of the libretto or book is balanced by the sophistication of the musical richness that he composes for these characters and their situations, reaching its height in a piece written for the Countess who provides a wonderful take-down of all the other fake and superficial high society guests at her party.
Why the composer chose this story of superficiality and social climbing for a musical treatment and what he sees in it as having contemporary relevance I wouldn't hazard a guess, but in a lot of ways it embodies Mitchell's own developing sophistication as composer and leader of the Belfast Ensemble. Not that there was anything lacking in the company's basic philosophy and approach in their earlier endeavours but, as Mitchell again observed in his introduction, there are certain restrictions and limitations imposed by the necessity of obtaining arts funding, as well as certain obligations. Without compromising their art or ambition, the Belfast Ensemble have worked within their means, building up character, mission and reputation, proving their value over the last few years. That has been evident right through Abomination, Propaganda, The Headless Soldier and in Mitchell's other larger scale commissions like Riot Symphony. The Belfast Ensemble have proved their worth and the faith and investment put in their growth across these successive works, building an audience along the way.
So there was no compromise involved either in the presentation of a major, musically and dramatically sophisticated a work such as this as a one-off concert performance. The treatment and presentation was not lacking in any way and a great deal of the reason for that was putting the investment where it is most important, in the expanded Ensemble and in the exceptional cast assembled for this performance. The singing was breathtakingly good across the board, each managing to bring personality and character to the roles. Christina Bennington brought real vulnerability to Camille Loisel, helping you to sympathise with her ambitions. Who doesn't want to be well thought of - but at what price? That was for Charlie McCullagh to find out as Gustav, stoically and sympathetically. Brigid Shine brought another dimension to the work as the sparkling Colette. Can you be a down-to-earth dreamer? Colette made you think so.
Although there were superb individual performances from all the cast, the choices made by the composer in how to deliver them proved to be another critical factor in the success of the presentation of the work. There were notable turns from Chanice Alexander-Burnett as the Countess and Nigel Richards as Vernier that were as much to do with well-written characters and their musical pieces as their performance, but threaded throughout the work was a substantial role from Ciara Mackey as the Narrator, as well as all the singers providing a chorus to underline key aspects of the story. Perhaps most effective of all - since we had all been geared up to expect the final cadence - was the manner in which Mitchell chose to let Kara Lane's Madame Forestier deliver the killing blow of the twist in the most subtle but effective manner. But really, all the hard work had been done beforehand.
It was that kind of sophistication that is what strikes you most about The Necklace. Despite the modesty of the presentation of the premiere, it's clear that there has been a lot of hard work put into making this a musical drama that is on a par with the best musical theatre has to offer. There were no spectacular numbers, nothing that - on a first listen anyway - that stood out as a big showstopper tune, but without wanting to overelaborate the metaphor too much (I'm going to anyway), The Necklace was a more modest piece of jewellery; unostentatiously set with gemstones that were perfectly placed to give colour and compliment the piece with a view to letting it work as a whole. Conor Mitchell is not getting ahead of himself, not dealing in paste jewellery and pawning his principles to get there. The Necklace is another gem in the Belfast Ensemble's collection.
