‘The Rape of Lucretia’ has long been the Cinderella among Benjamin Britten’s operas: with its dark subject matter and small cast and orchestra it came as a surprise and, to some early audiences, a disappointment after ‘Peter Grimes’ the year before.
Photo © Richard Hubert Smith
This highly successful production by Robin Norton-Hale is an effective corrective that shows Britten grappling with themes of morality, power and violence against women as urgent today as they were in the aftermath of World War Two.
There are no togas and tunics here: the three soldiers are modern squaddies in a vaguely desert setting, while Lucretia and her attendants operate in familiar modernish domesticity.
The collision between these two worlds is violent and ultimately fatal.
Not all is gloom and doom. Britten’s miraculous use of 13 instruments produces music that glitters, snarls, gallops. The male banter and horseplay, and the women’s chatter and charm only go to highlight the ensuing horror.
ETO fields a tremendously strong cast of well-delineated characters. Two highlights were Clare Presland’s vibrant, expressive portrayal of Lucretia and the pivotal part of the Male Chorus, ideally embodied by William Morgan, a singing actor of rare distinction.
The evening had begun shakily, as a technical hitch meant the performance had to restart after a few minutes.
Thereafter, the drama progressed powerfully to a conclusion with a glimmer of hope in the oddly anachronistic Christian message and the consoling words ‘we try to harness song to human tragedy’.
A well-received and well-attended triumph.
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Reviewer: Niall Hoskin
