Merola Revisits Britten’s Intense Chamber Opera

My first (and most recent) encounter with Benjamin Britten’s Opus 37 two-act opera The Rape of Lucretia took place in July of 2013. This was a fully-staged performance presented by the Merola Opera Program under the director of Peter Kazaras. In the Britten chronology, this opera is situated between his Opus 33 Peter Grimes and his Opus 39 Albert Herring. Like Opus 39, the instrumental resources for Opus 37 are on a chamber scale with one-to-a-part performances for concertmaster, second violin, viola, cello, bass, flute (doubling piccolo and alto flute), oboe (doubling cor anglais), clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), bassoon, horn, timpani, percussion, and harp. Last night’s conductor was Judith Yan, who delivered a solid command of the interplay of the instrumentalists with the vocalists.

However, from a dramatic point of view, the intensity of Opus 37 contrasts sharply, if not violently, with Opus 39. While Opus 39 lets the narrative unfold of its own accord, Opus 37 is structured around two narrators, identified as Male Chorus (tenor Chance Jonas-O’Toole) and Female Chorus (soprano Caroline Corrales). They guide the flow of the narrative by establishing context; and, in last night’s staging by Jan Eßinger, they intermingle with the action of the characters they are describing. I was particularly struck by Eßinger’s decision to have them reading from a book, since that book, most likely, would have been Livy’s History of Rome.

Nevertheless, the Scenic Design by Sonja Füsti was as contemporary as the costumes designed by Christine Crook. Nevertheless, there was a context of class consciousness in Ronald Duncan’s libretto that was not reflected in the appearance of the three soldiers. Two of them, Collatinus (bass James McCarthy) and Junius (baritone Cameron Rolling) are generals. The third, Tarquinius (baritone Samuel Kidd), is a prince; but, ironically, his uniform is not different from that of the generals. Also, the appearances of these three male characters never suggest that Collatinus and Junius are Romans, while Tarquinius is Etruscan, the “invading authority” of the narrative.

Class also emerges in the household, over which Lucretia (contralto Natalie Lewis) presides, that is run by her husband Collatinus. The only other roles in that household are servants, Lucretia’s old nurse Bianca (mezzo Simona Genga) and the maid Lucia (soprano Olivia Prendergast). The contemporary furnishings suggest that this is a well-to-do Roman household that has done well for itself under Etruscan authority. Nevertheless, that authority legitimizes Tarquinius entering the house will little resistance.

Tarquinius (Samuel Kidd) prepares to assault Lucretia (Natalie Lewis) while Male Chorus (Chance Jonas-O’Toole) and Female Chorus (Caroline Corrales) observe (photograph by Kristen Loken, courtesy of the Merola Opera Program)

The rape itself is the core of the narrative of the second act. Metaphorically, it is a reminder that Roman authority is always trumped by Etruscan authority (at least at this time in Livy’s historical account). In that context Lucretia’s suicide is the only alternative she can take as a noble Roman. At this point, however, the Chorus characters throw an unexpected twist into the narrative, reflecting on how the coming of Jesus will overthrow the value systems whose corruption is so evident among Romans under Etruscan rule. The implication seems to be that such corruption belongs only in the distant past, but those of us that follow the daily news are likely to think that such a distance no longer exists.