As Daphne, Hye-Youn Lee tenderly caressed single stemmed white roses, each held by the male chorus spaced across the width of the Usher Hall platform as the passionate music for her transformation into a laurel tree surged, her song now a wordless voice of nature. A deeply moving end to Strauss’ “Bucolic Tragedy in One Act” in this semi-staged concert performance by Scottish Opera perfectly illustrated the triumph of innocence, nature and light over darkness in this production of a neglected work.
The world was turning on its dark side when Strauss wrote Daphne in 1937 as the Nazi grip on Germany tightened. Strauss, treading a very fine line, had to square his appointment as President of the Reich’s Music with protecting his own family, some of whom were Jewish. He took this vivid Ancient Greek fable of gods, shepherds and fishermen as a powerful warning of the importance of standing up for personal beliefs in the face of terrible consequences. Director Emma Jenkins moves the action to the decadent Weimar Republic, focussing on the non-violent resistance White Rose group whose student leader Sophie Scholl was killed by the Nazis for distributing leaflets. Simple white roses threaded this production from beginning to end.
Daphne lends itself to concert performance as most of the action is in the music, leaving singers to concentrate on delivering their astonishing arias. Scottish Opera recruited hefty voices to rise above the large orchestra, but it was a tricky balance for conductor Stuart Stratford who needed to let voices through while keeping the sweeping musical fires ablaze. While wonderful to see the players out of the pit and on stage, the strong cast was overwhelmed at times, but generally held their own creating some properly thrilling moments.
Costumes were decadent Weimar 1930s, except Apollo who appeared as a smart jack-booted officer in a menacing long black coat sporting a Third Reich medal, a Luger pistol never far from his right hand. The story has the pure, nature-loving Daphne rejecting the now amorous advances of her childhood friend Leukippos in favour of the god Apollo, who visits the Bacchanalian midsummer revels ‘in disguise’. Leukippos, disguised as a maid, challenges Apollo, who kills him but hears Daphne’s lament and persuades Zeus to let her join the natural world.
Strauss asks much of his main characters, here tenors were large, bright and clear, Shenzgzhi Ren as Leukippos and Australian Brad Cooper as Apollo the muscular male core of the opera. Ren’s angry unmasking of Apollo was visceral and dangerous, Cooper’s full sun-god blazing proclamations incendiary, gleaming so you could almost feel the heat. In Daphne’s parents, Claire Barnett-Jones was a deliciously warm earth-mother Gaea and Dingle Yandell’s river god Peneios a gloriously huge authoritative voice. An eight-strong shepherd’s chorus led by Ross Cumming added character, and I loved Catriona Hewitson and Inna Husieva’s mischievous maids in their top hats, coyly convincing Leukippos to don a dress for the festivities. Hye-Youn Lee has become a favourite at Scottish Opera, her appearance as Daphne was sensational, her full tone and stamina carrying the passionate music, she sounded bright and fresh right to the end.
Stratford’s ensemble work brought luminosity to the score from pastoral winds including a lovely solo flute, lyrically surging strings and magnificently radiant brass. Daphne was a new work for the players and few in the hall will have seen a live performance, so the overwhelming power of Daphne’s final lament over Leukippos’ body and her transformation, Strauss’ favourite music, was a revelatory triumph over darkness.
