Before her death on August 20, 2011, Pat Bishop had been working on Winterreise (A Winter's Journey) concert. Winterreise is a song cycle meaning a "series of songs set as a rule to a number of poems with a connected narrative or some other unifying feature." Last Sunday, the production ended. It was a collaborative effort between The Lydians and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, at Little Carib Theatre, White Street, Woodbrook. Two days before her death, Bishop had commented on the production. Bishop said: "This German poet that Eddie (Cumberbatch) is going to be singing about, falls in love with a girl. He thinks she is in love with him, only to find she goes off with a rich man. He then retraces the benchmarks of their relationship by looking at a tree, etc."
Her input was not forgotten. Lydian Barbara Jenkins eulogised her in the programme. The piece was themed A Winter Journey of the Soul. She said: "As was her (Pat Bishop) way, she was also working on a collection of paintings, She Sells Sea Shells by the Sea Shore. For Pat, one creative activity inspired another, even segued into another. She could never do just one thing at a time when she was on fire; she had to find outlets everywhere or, be consumed by her energy, go into meltdown." This time, as she completed both-preparing for the concert and putting the last brushstroke on the last painting-she did self-combust. Jenkins volunteered it was not the work that killed her.
She said: "She was tireless with the choir, the steel, the painting, teaching, guiding, writing and thinking." "These gave challenge, gave hope, gave reward in lifting the spirit, her own and those she worked with. It was the stress of what she did not do, could not do, that broke her." She remembered Bishop's famous words. "How many times must you say to a national community; how many times must you say to the corporate world; how many times must you say to ministers and governments of how many regimes, that the wealth of the nation is the people, their creativity, their natural born talents, their talents. Not just say, not just talk, speechify, posture, but show by example, demonstrate by unceasing labour, by walking the walk, barefoot over beds of nails, through coals of fire, for decade after decade.
Say over and over that our wealth, the treasure of our human capital, is inexhaustible, renewable, sustainable-the only long-term capital that this country possesses, the only investment worthwhile, the only thing that could, would, last beyond all other wealth. That this wealth must be recognised, nurtured, developed, cherished, rewarded. That all else is ephemeral, all else, dross. It was while she was called upon to say it one more time that the fragile clay vessel that housed her soul broke beyond repair and Pat Bishop died."
Winter Journey of her own
Jenkins noted Bishop had been going through a winter journey of the soul for a long, long time. She said: "Pat had been soldiering on, putting the last of her energies into what she could do, while still hoping to persuade others, the powers-that-be, that the key to the country's salvation lies, not in physical structures, but in empowering institutions; not in consumerism, but in conservation; not in $GDP, but in the human GDP-greatest development of all people, ALL people-through their myriad talents, their boundless creativity. And she died, while saying so, one last time."
About Winterreise
It is a song cycle for voice and piano by Franz Schubert, a setting of 24 poems by Wilhelm Muller. The concert featured pianist Lindy-Ann Bodden-Rictch, dancers Allison Seapaul, Mondira Balkaransingh and Gregor Breedy. Choreography was done by Patricia Roe and costume design Robert Las Heras. Peter Minshall lent his artistic direction, Derek Gay was responsible for sound and lights by Francis Lewis assisted by Morgan Lewis. An excerpt from poem Good Night said: "I came here a stranger/As a stranger I depart/Love loves to wander/God made it that way."
