The Rape of Lucretia has always been among Britten’s
most problematic operas and it’s rarely performed. The problem
isn’t so much the subject matter - many of Britten’s operas
feature scenes every bit as unpleasant - though that doesn’t
help. The main issue is the structure of Ronald Duncan’s libretto
which adopts the deliberately distancing strategy of having a male
and female chorus commenting on the action. Nothing wrong with that
in and of itself, but the chorus is forever trying to draw some sort
of Christian parable from the unfolding action and the libretto crowbars
in all sort of allusions to Christ’s suffering as either a parallel
or a solution to Lucretia’s suffering. This is telescoped out
to become a metaphor for the suffering of all mankind. It’s
clunky and it doesn’t really work. It’s a little surprising
that Britten, who was a dramatist to his fingertips, decided to go
for it because it seems, if anything, to diminish the power and humanity
of the story. Still, the opera contains a lot of excellent music and
it gets as convincing a set of advocates here as you could hope to
find.
Most of the times I’ve come across Oliver Knussen he has been
conducting his own work, but here he shows that he is a Britten interpreter
par excellence. He directs the unfolding action with a masterful
ear for building and distilling tension. He is helped by a crack team
of Aldeburgh musicians who seem to hold the music up to the light
to let it sparkle. Britten wrote the piece for a chamber ensemble,
and each of the thirteen musicians are named and credited in the booklet.
They do a great job of illuminating this most transparent of Britten
scores, allowing each of the instrumental lines to shine. Britten’s
effects come across brilliantly, nowhere better than in the opening
scene with the harp for the twittering crickets and the pizzicato
glissandi on the bass for the croaking of the bullfrogs. However,
they are also capable of conjuring up the onward progress of the narrative,
and moments of excitement such as Tarquin’s ride move with convincing
sweep.
The singers are also an excellent team, anchored by the male and female
chorus. Ian Bostridge, surely the modern day heir to Pears, sings
his lines with energy and passion. He has as fine an ear for the drama
as for the musical line, and he isn’t above resorting to a snarl
to make the dramatic point. Next to him Susan Gritton seems a little
detached and her fulsome tone doesn’t seem to plug into the
drama in quite the same way as Bostridge. She still makes a lovely
sound, though the microphone balance seems to favour Bostridge over
her so that he tends to dominate when they sing together.
Angelika Kirchschlager sings Lucretia with a tone of wounded virtue
that puts me in mind of Janet Baker. Her portrayal of stolen innocence
is powerful and beautiful. Her diction is so good that only very rarely
might you detect that she is not a native English speaker, and even
then only if you were listening for it. As Collatinus, Christopher
Purves sounds vigorous and worthy, the closest thing this opera has
to a hero. Benjamin Russell sings Junius convincingly too, evoking
the character’s shame at his cuckolding without overwhelming
his virtues. There is a real nasty streak in Peter Coleman-Wright’s
voice that in other circumstances could come across as unpleasant;
here it suits the character down to the ground. The two maids are
beautifully sung too, and they help to bring to life the two most
beautiful passages in the piece, namely the folding of the linen in
Act 1 and the dawn in Act 2.
Britten’s own recording with Janet Baker will forever have its
own authority, and if you can track it down then Kathleen Ferrier’s
set is well worth a listen. This recording reinterprets the work in
modern digital sound for the 21
st Century and acts as a
solid advocate for a problematic opera. It may not win the opera many
more adoring fans - it’s a difficult work to love - but it certainly
deserves to gain it much more respect and admiration.
Simon Thompson
see also review by Paul
Corfield Godfrey
Britten discography & review
index
