Opera
The Rape of Lucretia
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
four stars
BENJAMIN Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia was a problematic work when it premiered in 1946, the title role created for and by Kathleen Ferrier, and the passing years have done little to ease its strange mix of classical fable and redemptive Christianity. This staging by director Jack Furness, with a cast from the Masters students at the Alexander Gibson Opera School, resolves many of its difficulties, however, by dropping the pagan Roman warriors and their wives into a contemporary military battlefield hospital, with the male and female chorus characters as an army chaplain and a Red Cross paramedic, in whose voices the Christian message is sung. The double time-line is both visually striking and a familiar trope of contemporary fiction and television drama, as it could not have been 75 years ago.
The device brings the plot into a new focus, the violation of Lucretia, sung here by Lauren Young, a consequence of male perspective on female fidelity as women soldiers in fatigues are seen marching at the back of the stage, as part of the backdrop of modern warfare, before the scene of “women’s work” of spinning and linen-folding that is part of Ronald Duncan’s libretto. Less successfully, First World War poppies are later substituted for the violets, mimosa and honeysuckle in the lyrics.
Although her name is constantly in the mouth of others, Lucretia has less of the best music in the score than the genesis of the work would lead you to expect. Her first act trio with Lucia (Sara Nealley) and Bianca (Lea Shaw) mirrors that of the men earlier, and Jolyon Loy, MacArthur Alewel and Oskar McCarthy as Tarquinius, Collatinus and Junius combine more effectively here. Tenor Robin Horgan makes a particularly lucid and effective contribution as the padre.
There are some glorious musical moments, as often from the thirteen-piece orchestra in the pit with conductor Lionel Friend. The Act Two lullaby for harp, alto flute and bass clarinet with female chorus Charlotte Richardson is Britten at his distinctive best, while the vocal ensemble work was of a consistently high standard throughout.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article