The ENO continues to find new ways of representing opera and developing a sustainable audience base for the 21st century. They have a hard won reputation for bold innovative leaps of faith, trying things that would make other opera houses swoon and ensuring that everyone, audiences and artists alike are made to feel welcome in this sometimes most precious of arts. 

 

There are times when this open door policy works and times, like last nights Lucrezia Borgia - Directed by film maker Mike Figgis - when it doesn't.

Mike Figgis is an innovative film maker - there's no doubt of that - and his ability to take huge chances in his own medium and pull off something quite new and astonishing would make his a bold choice for this first every staging of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at the ENO, renaissance Italy’s darkest femme fatale 

Mr. Figgis however bends this most expressive of mediums to his own will and makes a small screen multiplex opera without any of the scope, reach or breadth that might have been possible to tease out of Donizetti’s opera. 

 

Donizetti's Lucrezia is a mature women, most of her poisoning days behind her and at the peak of her powers. Here she is presented as a mother, rather than a monster. Sure she kills left right and centre but that's not the point, this is a light touch opera and it's the mix up's, muddles and plain silliness that is the driving force of the action for Donizetti. It's all a whirl of little bits of action with all the minor characters having an equal bash at our attention while Lucrezia strides high above this as the only strong female.

Well until Mr. Figgis comes along and does away with some 'opera conventions’ like turning a trouser role into a women, fiddling with gender pronouns and disrupting many of the main themes of fraternal bonding and love that runs through this work. 

It all ends up a bit silly; a young couple sings of undying love and support and then hop off to an orgy together.  It’s hetronormative nonsense. Unlike Lucrezia, you can't have it both ways Mr. Figgis. Break it or leave it but don't pick it up, give it a half twist and the put it back down again half finished. 

 

There were some sumptuous films specially created by Mr Figgis and projected in-between the acts, telling the lurid life story of the Borgia’s and the action kicks off with one. A semi porno film about the brutal mass rape of misbehaving courtesans. A proper film, all lovely light and swishing costumes and with quite the highest titty count of any opera I’ve seen in a while. Then the first act opens with Lucrezia on a huge bare stage, and a small tree. Ah, I thought, this is the ENO, they are just lulling us into a sense of bleakness so we can be astonished by the unbridled visual imagination of Mr. Figgis, alas it was not to be. 

 

Figgis has decided to 'condense' this opera, pulling his (and our) focus down on the frames, arches and small staging where all the (lack of) action takes place. 

This left us peering down into the vast blackness of the stage into the gaudy centre pieces that were flung up one after another.  I tired of it very soon, but then there was always another film coming along in a moment, the next one was a suggestive lesbian romp with murderous undertones, delightful, and the films were meant to show us the back story of Lucrezia ; the abused, raped, manipulated Lucrezia, to contrast with Donizetti’s presentation of her as a passionately caring and protective mother notwithstanding a wide vengeful streak.  Lovely idea but it broke the action and tension up. It was very hard to see how the busy, busty, bustling, sex pot in the HD film had anything to do with the static, formal Lucrezia on Stage. It was all very slow and the vividness of the films just made the stage action seem more static. 

 

More nipples came and went, a hint of incest, another film with some mad nuns this time and the frantic action of the films continued to undermine the narrative on stage, as if Figgis had put all his effort into the filming and had none left to apply to the operatic stage itself. 

Can you imagine what you would do if you were an out of work film director and the ENO came calling:  asking you to direct a rarely performed masterpiece written about a mythically wicked women.  Saying 'here have our stage, our wardrobes, our expertise, our translators and our audience and do what you will' imagine what flights of utter divine lunacy and artistic grace you could burn into the collective consciousness of each audience to sit in front of it. 

Mr. Figgis made a few naughty films, shrunk everything down, pared down the action to a minimum, allowed a daft translation (by conductor Paul Daniel) that verged on the silly and lost his nerve and way in my view.

 

I'll forgive him and the ENO as the only true failure is not to try. 

 

Right enough of the twaddle, the evening was saved by the combined talents of Clare Rutter's Lucrezia,  up-and-coming American tenor Michael Fabiano as her long lost son Fabiano and Elizabeth DeShong as Orsini (who's dignified, authentic voice triumphed over  the gross forced gender reassignment of her character by the director and translator.) This was good, but not astonishing singing, Rutter's cosy dignified performance only once or twice veered over into the dark madness of the Borgia, it was all very W.I.  

Alastair Miles as Alfonso d'Este, Lucrezia  husband, brought a vivid, wicked persuasive and manipulative delight to his role as he twisted his voice around Rutters and this was the high point of the evening for me.  The chorus, reduced to near invisibility by Figgis, kicked about on the edges flapping their cloaks, like pissed off crows in-between some dancing ladies in basques who I felt were at any moment going to do a Can Can. 

 

Peter Mumford's lighting did a wonderful job of picking out the small scale sumptuousness of what little staging we had and brought the act by act ideas of the narrative being set in a series of famous paintings to life and the costumes from Brigitte Reiffeenstuel did what they could to suggest the period, just.

 

This production will be broadcast on TV by Sky Arts live from 7.30 pm on the February 23 (on both Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2HD) and it will be shown in 3D, another first for the ENO.

Meanwhile on Sky Arts 1 HD, they are showing Mike Figgis’ view of events, capturing stolen moments and frantic preparations behind the scenes from hidden cameras. This had proved hugely popular with viewing audiences in the past and I had the nagging suspicions through-out the whole evening that Figgis had more of his wonderful eye on how this would look in 3D HD TV than how it would feel like to experience it in the trembling, emotive spaces of the ENO.  I'll be tuning in to see if I’m right. 

 

Overall it was an OK evening out.  I took an Opera Virgin with me, who knew nothing of Ms Borgia or Mr. Figgis and he came away slightly confused about Lucrezia and disappointed by the lack of spectacle or any real moment of astonishing brilliance. He did however feel that he'd seen something new and it whetted his appetite to see something else, which is surely the whole point of these exercises in innovation.  It's a brave house that takes these risks and having one dud amidst so many successful new ideas is no failure. 

 

I hope the ENO continue to try to push the boundaries of what Opera is, but also hope they keep their sights firmly on the fact that Opera is first and foremost a live event, and is more than the sum of it's parts.  I was hoping to be moved to tears by Lucrezia 's wicked madness but was left sighing by her suburban life, and bored by this Borgia.  

 

Lucrezia Borgia at the ENO Coliseum,  St Martins Lane,London

Feb 5, 9, 15, 18, 23, 25 & Mar 3 at 7.30pm, Feb 5, 12 at 6.30pm


9 performances.

Running time: 2 hrs 45 mins

The film elements of this production contain strong language and scenes of a sexual nature and are not suitable for children under 16

 

More info and to book tickets here: