EIF: Passion of Mary Magdalene
Queen’s Hall, 8/8/2026
Dunedin Consort, Director, John Butt, Soloists, Anna Dennis, Marcus Farnsworth
Composer: Tansy Davies
The Queen’s Hall was full and there was an air of anticipation among us for this first concert of the festival. Our wonderful festival director, Nicola Benedetti, gave us a warm welcome and rightly told us to turn our phones off and welcome the wonderful Dunedin Consort, with this new work by Tansy Davies. This is a new work commissioned jointly by the Dunedin Consort, the Barbican and the Edinburgh International Festival. It was premiered at the Barbican in March to mixed reviews and this was its second performance.
The work tells the story of the Passion with an enhanced role for Mary Magdalene, using non-canonical gospels and ancient texts and the poetry of Ruth Fainlight. It is developed in three sections over 85 minutes with no interval. It proved a tough listen for us all, and unfortunately too much for some who slipped away during a pause. The music was provided by 16 members of the Dunedin playing some quite complex modern music but very ably conducted by John Butt. They accompanied a chorus of 7 Dunedin singers and our soloists Anna Dennis as Mary Magdalene and Marcus Farnworth as Christ.
It is tempting to write off the music with my usual characterisation of modern music with little melody, as “plinky plonky” music. Yet it’s too simple to put this work into this category for at times it is immensely evocative of powerful emotions. Some are very uncomfortable, like the discordance of the crazed boy healed by Yeshua, the frenzy of the mob calling for the crucifixion and the freeing of Barabbas, and the spiritual and physical agony of the crucifixion. At other times the physical love of Mary Magdalene for Christ’s body is powerfully portrayed. At times it was very challenging but helped by the very good subtitles projected on to the Queens Hall wall we followed the story. Some of the text resonated for some of us. For example early on the lines, “What are you doing here?” invited the response that we were there to share the agony. If the listening was challenging, then the singing was more so. Many of us know the amazing voice of Anna Dennis from her earlier work with the SCO; she is a very fine singer. In this work she has very intense powerful lines to deliver in a very high pitch; she did with great aplomb, with superb control and intelligence, but at times I would have wished to her in lower register and with more melodic music. Marcus Farnsworth had rather less demanding lines to deliver and his very reliable baritone delivered them well. The Dunedin singers also sang and acted their parts well and the audience gave a warm response at the end, although for me that was partly relief at the end of a challenging 85 minutes!
Will this work become a part of the Easter musical tradition? I must admit I’m sceptical that it’s likely to replace the Bach Passion but I’m sure it will find a place in modern music. However should it have been the opening concert for the Queens Hall series? I’m again not so sure. I think opening concerts should inspire and lift us up and for me this work did not do that. My response maybe reflects my final, rather personal, observation, for the concert was for me challenging in a direct way. I got a ringing in my ears at the end of the concert, a symptom of mild tinnitus. Being partially deaf and with very expensive hearing aids I’m aware of these symptoms which can be brought on by tiredness but also by loud noise. I spoke to a friend at the concert who also experienced this ringing in the ears. So challenging in more than the normal musical ways and should maybe come with a health warning!
