Opera review: George Enescu’s Oedipe and Rossini’s Il Barbiere Di Siviglia

GEORGE Enescu’s only opera, Oedipe, was acclaimed as his masterpiece at its 1936 world premiere in Paris.

George Enescu’s Oedipe at Royal OperaPR

George Enescu’s Oedipe at Royal Opera

The war intervened, and afterwards the Romanian composer fell into disfavour when the Communist government gained power in Bucharest. 

Now a co-production between Brussels La Monnaie, Paris Opera and the Royal Opera has brought in the inventive Catalan theatre group La Fura Dels Baus to rescue the work from obscurity for its UK premiere at Covent Garden. 

The first of a series of mindblowing images shows what seems to be a four-tiered wall of terracotta figures at front stage. Peter van Praet’s lighting reveals it as a living frieze of citizens of Thebes. 

The chorus crowded on the balconies celebrate the birth of the infant Oedipus to King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocaste.

The gathering is disrupted when blind prophet Tiresias (Sir John Tomlinson at his most resonant) roars the terrible fate in store for the royal son, destined to kill his father and marry his mother. The baby is left to die of exposure on a mountain. 

The message of Greek tragedy is you can run but you can’t hide from fate. Directors Alex Ollé and Valentina Carrasco nod to Freudian psychoanalysis when the adult Oedipus (Johan Reuter) reclines on a replica of Dr Freud’s iconic couch where he confesses his dark visions to his adoptive mother Queen Merope (Claudia Huckle). 

A road rage incident on the road back to Thebes ends with the murder of Oedipus’s real father, thus fulfilling the first part of the prophecy. 

Horror follows swiftly as Oedipus defeats the malevolent Sphinx (the splendid contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, who emerges snarling from an antique fighter plane). 

Oedipus’s reward, marriage to Sarah Connolly’s Queen Jocaste, leads him unavoidably to his destiny. In the final part, the blinded hero is led by his loyal daughter Antigone, movingly portrayed by Sophie Bevan, to the place where he can die in peace. 

Enescu’s richly eclectic score uses Romanian folk music together with influences of Mahler, Debussy and Stravinsky in a flow of multilayered sound, played superbly by the Royal Opera Orchestra under conductor Leo Hussain. 

Danish baritone Johan Reuter, in a marathon of more than two and a half hours, is heroic. 

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The Barber Of Seville at Glyndebourne FestivalPR

The Barber Of Seville at Glyndebourne Festival

Rossini’s Il Barbiere Di Siviglia (The Barber Of Seville)

Glyndebourne Festival Opera Nr Lewes, Sussex (Tickets: 01273 815000/ glyndebourne.com; £80-£260)

A lecherous old man imprisons his young ward in his house, intent on forcing her into marriage and grabbing her dowry as well. 

Rossini’s ever popular The Barber Of Seville, celebrating its 200th anniversary, is based on Pierre Beaumarchais’s play, a comedy where the young and agile outwit the old and powerful. 

Designer Joanna Parker’s set of Moorish tiles, with ornate grill through which Rosina can only peep at the world outside, emphasises the feeling of imprisonment. 

Danielle de Niese’s feisty Rosina proves more than a match for Alessandro Corbelli’s fulminating Dr Bartolo. 

She is helped to elope with Taylor Stayton’s Count Almaviva by resourceful Figaro, rising German baritone Bjorn Burger making his Glyndebourne debut. 

The musical fireworks from the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the ebullient Enrique Mazzola brings out the heady fizz of Rossini’s score. 

Director Annabel Arden, though, needs to work on sharpening the comedy on stage. A live performance of the production will be broadcast in cinemas and online on June 21.

VERDICT 4/5

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