E-Mail This Article to a Friend The children’s hour Revels does Britten’s Noye’s Fludde BY IRIS FANGER

The closest we come to the theater of mediæval Europe, when the Church used drama as a teaching tool for the illiterate masses, is the annual Tournament of Roses or Boston’s First Night celebration — minus the faith. Like the ancient performances, our celebrations incorporate colorful floats, music, spectacle, and a host of participants in the streets.

The mediæval plays were first performed in Latin on the altars of the churches. Gradually they passed into the hands of the townsfolk who spoke (and sung) the lines in their native tongue and humanized the characters. In England there grew a great tradition of cycles of short "mystery" plays from the Old and New Testaments; these were generally performed on Corpus Christi Day (the Thursday of the second week after Pentecost), which most often fell in June and provided perfect weather for an outdoor festival.

The drama of Noye’s Fludde comes from the cycle of 25 plays extant from Chester, a walled city near Liverpool. British composer Benjamin Britten transformed the play into a one-act opera to be performed primarily by children. Noye’s Fludde was premiered in England in 1958, then produced in America two years later by John "Jack" Langstaff, founder of Revels, which stages its annual Christmas production in Sanders Theatre. Langstaff sang the role of Noah more than 30 times. Now 83, he’ll have a different perspective in the Revels production of Noye’s Fludde next weekend at the First Congregational Church in Cambridge. This time, he’s taking the part of God. "The way he puts it, is it’s like looking down on the world instead of looking up at the heavens," according to George Emlen, the show’s music director.

Directed by Emlen and Patrick Swanson, the Revels production will feature nearly 180 actor-singers and musicians, most of them children from school and church choirs in Greater Boston: the Boston City Singers, the Revels touring group called "Circle of Song," the Longy Youth Chorale, and choirs from the Glen Urgahardt School in Beverly, the First Unitarian Church of West Newton, and Shady Hill School. The children will portray Noah’s sons and their wives and the hundred or so animals who enter the ark; some will also play in the orchestra. Professional singers Paul Guttry and Lynn Torgove will appear as Mr. and Mrs. Noah, and the orchestra will be augmented by 10 professional musicians.

Swanson explains, "It’s a family show. One of the reasons that Revels was interested in this opera is that is coincides with a lot of our values, to please adults and children at the same time. And it’s concerned with some underlying mythologies and traditional materials."

Emlen adds, "The music is melodic and memorable, yet at the same time it’s very modern in a 20th-century kind of way. It’s bi-tonal, in two keys. There’s elements of 12-tone composition within it, but you’d never know it. You’re getting a good dose of contemporary music, wonderful, solid music, but it seems simple."

The animals will process through the sanctuary of the First Church, entering with a "Kyrie eleison"; they’ll leave the ark with a majestic "Alleluia" as a rainbow appears. The parts of the Raven and the Dove will be danced by children. And in true Revels fashion, the audience will accompany the cast in several of the hymns that Britten incorporated into his score. As Emlen says, "It makes the audience part of the action."

Revels presents Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde at the First Congregational Church,11 Garden Street in Harvard Square, next Friday and Saturday, March 5 and 6. There’s a special student-rate performance (open to the public) March 5 at 10 a.m. for which tickets are $9. Regular performances are March 5 at 7 p.m. and March 6 at 1 and 7 p.m.; tickets for those are $16. Call (617) 972-8300 extension 22 or visit www.revels.org.