Thebans
Julian Anderson Music, Libretto by Frank McGuinness
Engligh National Opera
London Coliseum
This was Julian Anderson’s first opera and such a murmiration of anticipation it has made, and on Saturday night at the World Premier Anderson surpassed expectation and gave us a real night to remember. The opera is a dichotomy of contradictions (like it’s subject matter), its crepuscular yet starkly illuminates, it’s mean yet full of heart, it’s unremittingly grim though points the way of redemption, what it’s not is easy on the ear or eye but then a condensed presentation of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone (the Theban trilogy), is never going to be easy going.
Working with Frank McGuinness who gives us this modern succinct libretto, Anderson has managed to dissolve away what we think we know about this Theban Trilogy and given us a gripping retelling, slightly out of chronological order but in a much better story form for its jiggling and allows the music to plumb pyshcological depths and mine this well known story for more precious narrative ore.
Roland Wood’s Oedipus commands the stage but has no challenge while he sings, whereas Matthew Best’s Tiresias in breathtaking, beautiful other worldly and made my evening like a bejeweled insect of doom with his mantis like sticks. Anthony Gregory’s lyrical tenor is splendid and he shines as the Stranger from Corinth and Jonathan McGovern as Polynices is superb, this delightful baritone rolls his voice around the Coliseum and fills the role. Peter Hoare’s Creon is astonishingly good, all repression, paranoid fear and cruelty. Julia Sporsen’s Antigone just isn’t given enough space to breathe real life into her but sings the limited amount with beauty.
Andersons music is not easy, there’s no direction to it, or logical instruction for feeling, but the broad shattering sound scapes he summons up grip and twist the mind into a wild series of emotional reactions and gives chaotic swirling depth to the action unfolding on the stage. Pierre Audi direction gives this production a solid base in the rational and logical even though most of the action comes from the Gods. The set designs from Tom Pye are brutal and work well in summing up the changes and oppression of the stories, they are as cold and eternal looking as are the stories but with cold chill threaded through everything, and it’s all monochrome, brutish and harsh.
The second act is very different for Anderson, he jettisons the random roar of sound and the menace of ruthless regularity takes control, where the music echoes the developing police state of Creon’s onstage with a staccato building of endless sharp, quick tones. You can hear and feel the tide of repression rising and fear is all around in the music’s ruthless, fascistic march onwards driven by the Chrous. Horribly gripping, I loved it.
The chorus were superb; from hushed murmur to full throated roar they filled and fulfilled every hope I had for them and really underscored the power of this opera. They are a huge part of the story. The ENO chorus is always good, it often excels but this evening it surpassed itself with wild & fierce glee. Their relentless presence fills every observer’s point of view, the community’s view, Apollo’s, history’s long view and narrator. They are fantastic and set and keep the pace.
This was a bold, innovative and really rather smart production which gripped from its opening moments until the last anguished pure note. Although unremittingly grim in style and content its simple inner purity and rational story telling brought this most familiar and yet unknown postmodern psychological story back to its simple Greek roots and allowed us to feel the raw emotion at its root.
To read synopsis, CLICK HERE:
Edward Gardner conducts with his usual energy and the orchestra pumps out his music with full possession of the art but there’s little feeling written into it for them to work with, although they did seem to be having fun with the percussion.
It’s not all rosy in this new work, the stories are whipped over with such speed that they can on occasion be only cyphers for the real depth of characters that are grasped at, this is most cruelly shown by Antigone not having enough time or music to really make her mark but i suppose Anderson reminds us of that eternal truth that life is short thou Thebans is even shorter.
It’s been a while since I’ve left an Opera with quiet so much to think about and the ENO should be congratulated on striking out in such a bold direction to give this Opera the kind of staging it needed to really reach its goal and giving Julian Anderson the opportunity to convince of us of what we all knew all along, that his mastery of tone, structure and invention is masterful.
Recommended.
Until June 3
ENO
London Coliseum, St Martins Lane, London
May 8, 10, 23 and June 3 at 7:30pm
For more info or to book tickets, CLICK HERE:
The funding was made possible by Brighton Pride from the revenue raised through its scheme to donate £1 per ticket sold for the event last year.
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