FLORENCE, THE
LADY WITH THE LAMP
By William Littler, Music Critic, The Toronto Star
(Monday, March 6, 1995)
"Opera earned second
hearing"
"They called her an angel of
mercy and a good many things less flattering, but you won't find in any of
Florence Nightingale's standard biographies the tale of her love for an
Anglican cleric in distant Elora, Ont."
"But whether legend or truth,
the relationship forms the basis for Florence, The Lady With The Lamp,
one of the more successful Canadian operas of recent vintage, which had its
premiere at the Elora Festival (in St. John's Church itself, appropriately
enough) in 1992 and its Toronto premiere over the weekend at the Jane Mallett
Theatre."
"A two-act chamber opera
using an orchestra of only eight players (ably conducted on this occasion by
Robert Cooper), Florence begins and ends with John alone in his church,
musing over what life has ordained. In between, we meet Florence and her family
in Victorian England during the first act and follow her to war in the
second."
"Even without submitting it
to a full staging, Opera in Concert earned it's audience gratitude for
embracing Florence as the first Canadian opera on its 21-year-old
series. Few enough of the operas written in this country are given a first
hearing; Timothy Sullivan's had clearly earned a second."