Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire, then touring until 21 November, 5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: Clare Colvin.

Photo Credit: Richard Hubert Smith.

Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire, then touring until 21 November,

5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: Clare Colvin.

“Britten’s dramatic chamber opera asks questions for today.”

First performed in 1946 The Rape of Lucretia was Britten’s horrified response to the depths of depravity that humanity was capable of during the second world war.  The story is based on the ancient history of Rome, when for a bet Tarquinius, son of the Etruscan King of Rome raped the virtuous Lucretia, an outrage that was to lead to a people’s revolt against the King and the setting up of a democracy.

Robin Norton-Hale’s intense production is set in a present-day war zone barrier of piled up rubble where three soldiers are bantering about their previous night’s visit home from army camp to test the loyalty of their wives. The only wife found to be staying virtuously home was Lucretia, wife of Collinatus.  After Collinatus retires to bed, his fellow General, Junius, prevails on Tarquinius, son of the Etruscan King of Rome, to test whether Lucretia remains virtuous.  

In his chamber opera Britten uses the device of a sole Male and Female Chorus who act as narrators, to tell the story as it happens and the moral to be implied. Tarquinius’s head-long dash on his fiery stallion is strikingly delivered by the Male Chorus, tenor William Morgan, conjuring up the vision of thudding hooves and bolting animal.  The apprehension among the women at the furious knocking on the door “too loud to bring anything but bad” increases the tension.  Later the Female Chorus (Jenny Stafford) sings a lullaby to Lucretia shortly before Tarquinius enters the bedroom to carry out his violent assault.

As Lucretia, Clare Presland has an appealing purity of tone and delicacy in appearance.  The whole production is finely cast, with baritone Kieran Rayner as Tarquinius and bass Trevor Eliot Bowes as Collatinus.   Ronald Duncan’s libretto at times sounds slightly dated, and the question asked at the end by the Female Chorus, “Is this all? Is all this suffering and pain in vain?” is not satisfactorily answered by the religious salve offered by the Male Chorus.  But the violence that shook ancient Rome, is still around today, and in her concluding director’s programme note, Norton-Hale suggests that in keeping on asking the question, “Perhaps we can find some glimmers of hope in the darkness.”.

Conductor: Gerry Cornelius; Director: Robin Norton-Hale; Designer: Eleanor Bull; Lighting Designer: Jamie Platt; Movement Director: Rebecca Meltzer; Production pictures: Richard Hubert Smith

Touring with Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love to 22 November. englishtouringopera.org.uk

 (At Belgrade Theatre, Coventry Friday 10 October 024 7655 3055)