An opera that explores a fictional encounter between author Janet Frame and a psychiatric nurse at Seacliff Hospital near Dunedin.
Jayne Tankerley as Janet Frame in the New Zealand Opera film 'The Strangest of Angels' Photo: Minerva Productions, Photo by Kirsty Griffin
Jayne Tankerley as Janet Frame and Anna Leese as the fictional nurse Katherine Baillie in the New Zealand Opera film 'The Strangest of Angels' Photo: Minerva Productions, Photo by Kirsty Griffin
The Strangest of Angels was written by Kenneth Young in collaboration with soprano Anna Leese to a libretto by Georgia Jamieson Emms.
The work was commissioned by Anna Leese.
It was presented at seasons in Christchurch and Dunedin in 2022 by NZ Opera featuring the singers Jayne Tankersley as Janet Frame and Anna Leese as the fictional nurse Katherine Baillie.
This recording by RNZ Concert was made in the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra's Ron Ball Studio in August 2022 and was the basis for the production of a film of the opera by NZ Opera and Minerva Productions.
Anna Leese (Nurse Katherine Baillie), Jayne Tankersley (Janet Frame), Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kenneth Young.
The film, directed by Rebecca Tansley, has its New Zealand premiere screenings at the New Zealand International Film Festival 2023.
Synopsis
(courtesy of NZ Opera)
Three scenes separated by two instrumental interludes.
Scene 1
Nurses on front lawn of Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, 1890. Photo: CC BY 2.0 Archives NZ
The year is 1952. This is Seacliff Mental Hospital. A young woman named Janet Frame is a psychiatric patient here, diagnosed with schizophrenia. At this point in her life she has suffered over 200 courses of electric shock therapy. Katherine Baillie, a nurse who has recently transferred to Seacliff, is surprised to recognise Janet from her school days in Oamaru. Katherine remembers Janet’s leadership and academic prowess.
Janet remembers Katherine as being popular and confident while she herself was embarrassed by her homemade uniform, and deeply grieving after the death of her older sister.
Katherine decides that she will not give Janet any special treatment, but is intrigued enough by her to read through Janet’s personal papers.
Scene 2
Katherine observes Janet and muses over how she must have ended up at Seacliff.
She reads Janet’s file and the letters between Janet and her former lecturer and mentor, John Money.
Katherine sneaks Janet a piece of cake, to be kept hidden from the other patients.
Katherine discovers that Mrs Frame, Janet’s mother, has agreed to a frontal lobotomy. She finds this difficult to accept. She is torn between her duty as a nurse - instructed to hold Janet’s shoulders down as they shock her body rigid - and her own humanity and empathy towards a woman she suspects may have been wrongly diagnosed.
Scene 3
December 26th. Katherine seems distracted, a little manic. She delivers a letter to Janet, from Mrs. Frame. She tries to cheer up Janet, who is contemplating the impending procedure.
A second letter for Janet, this one from John Money, who is deeply concerned about Janet being lobotomised.
Unprompted, Katherine starts to tell Janet about her own mother, who was witty, brilliant, and charming, but “took a turn.” It transpires that, while suffering from post-partum depression, Katherine’s mother was admitted to Seacliff Hospital, leaving Katherine to keep house and raise her younger siblings. Katherine is deeply traumatised by what happened, and Janet gently offers, as a small comfort, the text of Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee.
As Katherine regains her composure and reveals the news she has purposefully, cruelly, withheld: Janet’s procedure has been cancelled. The news comes with the gift of a typewriter.
Recorded by RNZ Concert, Ron Ball Studio, Christchurch, 12 & 13 August 2022
Producer: Tim Dodd
Engineer: Adrian Hollay
Watch a trailer for the film here:
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