Orpheus and Eurydice, ENO, London Coliseum, review: pellucid music and two heart-tugging leads let down by anodyne choreography

Alice Coote last sang the role of Gluck’s Orpheus at the Coliseum in a production opening on the terrible night that the world-changing news of  9/11 came through: I will never forget the raw intensity of her singing as Orpheus risked all for love and outfaced death – oddly, she once told me that she had entered the theatre that evening unaware of the catastrophe. 

Eighteen years later, she is a more mature artist with a major international career, but still one who sings from the heart. Recently, I’ve been worried by a hootiness and bumpiness in her voice that led to clumsy over-emphasis in her phrasing, but I’m happy to report that this was much less in evidence in this new staging, despite her pleading our indulgence for a virus infection. I wonder if she has wisely sought out a new teacher and reassessed her technique.

Her timbre is not one I would describe as beautiful, but its grainy texture makes it a deeply expressive instrument, and Orpheus’s dilemma became heart-tuggingly immediate, especially in her imprecations to the Guardians of Hades and the climactic duet with Eurydice, sung with shining clarity by lovely Sarah Tynan. If one could ignore the embarrassing fustian of Christopher Cowell’s English translation, Coote’s delivery of the text was rich in thoughtful feeling throughout.