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Edinburgh Festival 2012: The Lady from the Sea, King’s Theatre, review
This is a first-rate production of Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea by Scottish Opera, writes Rupert Christiansen.
Why have Ibsen’s plays so seldom been adapted for opera? My only answer to this question is that despite their strongly delineated dramatic situations, potent characters and dense atmosphere, they are essentially too moral, cerebral and dialectic for a medium that prefers emotional statement to reasoned argument.
But you can see why a composer might be drawn towards The Lady from the Sea: it’s a poetic work rich in symbolism from Ibsen’s late period, focused on a mysterious woman alienated from her decent husband and drawn back to a long-lost mariner love who may or may not be a figment of her imagination.
A Scots composer called Craig Armstrong has fallen for the bait. “It’s about the exploration of freedom,” he says in the programme, “what it means to be beholden to love, to face the threat of the loss of love and how our decisions can contain us or set us free.” He’s not wrong, but that’s quite a tall order for an operatically inexperienced composer.
Armstrong is best known for his vibrantly colourful film scores for Baz Luhrmann’s movies Romeo +Juliet, Moulin Rouge (and the forthcoming The Great Gatsby), so it’s not surprising that what he has come up with sounds more like a soundtrack than a music drama: it’s a foam cushion of a score, immediately comfortable yet boneless and backless.
It’s also hobbled by the librettist Zoe Strachan’s decision to retain what seems like an inconsequential sub-plot rather than focusing on the Lady, her husband and her lost love. The sum is fluent and singable, but it all passes in a swirl and a gush, without leaving any trace behind.
Scottish Opera’s production, however, is first-rate. Harry Fehr’s elegantly designed staging does what it can to clarify and sharpen the hazy drift of the proceedings, and all the singers take full advantage of Armstrong’s gratifyingly soupy vocal lines. Claire Booth is glowingly eloquent in the title role, and two notably good tenors, Mark Milhofer and Alexander Sprague, stand out among a strong supporting cast. Derek Clark conducts wholeheartedly.
The opera doesn’t amount to a great deal and is unlikely to have a future, but running as it does at only 70 minutes without an interval, it passed the time painlessly and the audience gave it a warm reception.
Until Saturday, and then at Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Sept 8-9. Tickets: 0131 473 2000