I've mentioned the Fisk Jubilee Singers around here a couple of times in the past. Yesterday I discovered that someone created a 60-minute play that serves as a nice, introductory summary version of their Victorian-era tour of England and Wales. It does not get into the Difficult Stuff in any depth, or the whole scope of the the physical/mental price the singers paid tours, but it does capture the general positive Humanity Uplift of what they were and did at that time, and what they were fighting for. It also does a nice job of intimating the heart connection somehow formed between these black former slaves and the Welsh, who had their own problems to deal with.
It would take a miniseries to capture the full scope of the Fisk tours during the Victorian era. This short play skips a lot, but is a good introduction.
Jonathan Pryce - he of "one day we will have lemon-soaked paper napkins...until then there will be a short delay" - is heard in a key supporting/starring role. He has a nice voice! You want to hear him! (However, based on what I've been educating myself about over the past three years, he doesn't even attempt to do a Welsh accent. Felt that needed to be said; it's possible that since he's playing a character who has been "mainstreamed" into English society as a reporter, the voice he uses is just fine. Also, factor in that this entry is being typed by an American with limited direct experience. Just because none of the three Welsh people I have personally encountered have Pryce's cadence or tonal speaking patterns *does not mean* that there are not Welsh people who sound as he does in this play. Dude, as many times throughout life as I've gotten the Articulate Praise thing from random white people surprised by my Standard American Midwestern Twang, and resisted tearing their throats out WITH MY TEETH SO I COULD TASTE THEIR BLOOD when they offered so-called praise? I assume that I am equally ignorant of the range of actual Welsh accents. What Pryce does in this play might be dead on. I don't know. )
The USA accents for those spoken bits in it do not make you cringe. This is not something that often happens on BBC Radio plays involving USA accents. (Love you BBC Radio Dramas, but you kinda suck at anything with a USA accent, and god help you if it's a USA *regional* accent.) So you don't have to worry about that! There are some BBC Radio plays I've not been able to listen to all the way through, due to the horrendous USA accents.***
According to the liner notes at the site, the singing is handled by a black gospel choir in London. Just FYI, the production keeps with the reports from the time that the Fisk singers took a classical approach to the songs. They did not throw down in the black Baptist/Pentecostal tradition we are familiar with in modern times. Back then the decision was made to take a restrained approach to the music, in order to ease the audiences into it.
BBC Radio keeps stuff up for about a week. Click here to listen before it's gone.
*** The reason I watched only one episode of House and never went back? It's because of the discordant USA accent of the lead. I love him in other stuff. But on that show the second he opens his mouth I fall on the floor and writhe.