Sky Arts - Rape of Lucretia

Soloists from the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme

Kings Place, London - 4th Nov 2008

Kings Place? Yes, the concert-art-gallery-coffee-shop-canal-basin-office-space venue that just opened within shouting distance of platform 1 of Kings Cross. Its two shoebox-shaped concert halls have been universally praised for their clear, focused acoustics. In this excellent concert performance of Britten's opera follow-up to Peter Grimes, it was easy to see and hear why.

Rape of Lucretia was Britten's first chamber opera, with an orchestra of just a dozen (here supplied by the Britten-Pears orchestra). It has a 'male chorus', sung by a single tenor who comments on and explains the action of the male characters, and a 'female chorus', sung by a single soprano, who does the same with the female characters. There are also six solo singers, acting out a psychologically harrowing tale in which – well, the clue's in the title. Some beautiful music in amongst the incisive, tightly-focused musical narrative, but no rhapsodic boy-meets-girl stuff; it's Britten, not Puccini.

Performances were superb all round. These are not 'hopeful students', but accomplished and experienced pros, many with transatlantic experience. 'Concert performance' it may be, with men in tails and women in posh dresses, but the acting, done simply with facial expression, gesture, and nuance of voice, was thoroughly gripping. And they all knew their roles inside out - no standing with scores here.

James Geer's male chorus was utterly gripping, his precise dictation perfectly matched to the function of narrator-commentator. His female complement Robyn Dreidger-Klassen brought riveting passion, and as they saw the inevitable crime happen, their sense of appalled impotence was palpable. All six soloists were superb: Benedict Nelson’s magisterial Tarquinius, Stephen Mumbert’s scheming Junius, Allen Boxer’s dignified Collatinus; Blythe Guissert's wronged Lucretia, Jillian Yemen lively Bianca and Eve-Lyn de la Haye's bright Lucia. And, especially in this acoustic, the genius and invention of Britten's fastidious music was laid out in every detail, with conductor Edward Dick also providing the harmonically meaty recit-ish piano sections.

Kings Place is mostly going to be for chamber concerts (the office space above, occupied among others by the Guardian, help fund the arts spaces below) and there are generous discounts for tickets online. But on the basis of this, their occasional opera offerings will be worth checking out too. There won't be too much grand-opera with a cast of thousands and a Wagner orchestra, but the right pieces can clearly work out perfectly, as this Lucretia did. On 6 December 2008 they're putting on Mozart's early opera Ascanio in Alba (staged): look forward to that.

And in case you're wondering, yes, it's 'Kings Place': no apostrophe. Apparently the architects decided it didn't look cool enough with the conventional punctuation. Given that they got most other things just right, I suppose we can forgive them.

By Rob Ainsley