Review: IPHIGENIE EN TAURIDE, Hackney Empire, March 5 2016

Though opera isn't popular everywhere, it's fair to say that when the English Touring Opera's company pitch up in a town, the locals do not kidnap them and sacrifice them in the local temple. But that was the fate of those washed up on the shores of Tauris (present day Crimea), a practice designed to propitiate Diana, the goddess who protected the local people, the Scythians under their fanatical king Thoas. Iphigenie, Diana's High Priestess, is increasingly troubled by the human cost of these sacrifices, so when a pair of young men, soon found (like her) to be Greeks, are presented for the ritual slaughter, she looks for a way to spare them, with one of the victims looking strangely familiar.

Gluck's 1779 opera (part of English Touring Opera's Spring season at the Hackney Empire and on tour) is packed with the warp and weft of Greek mythology - so we get families riven by murder, unlikely coincidences and the gods themselves minded to intervene in human affairs if asked nicely. That said, it's also a very human story, at the heart of which is Iphigenie, a girl growing up in exile far from home and questioning how she can assert her own growing sense of self in an alien environment. Oreste (one of the men condemned to death) too is lost both geographically and spiritually, after revenging his father, King Agamemnon, by killing his mother, Clytemnestra. When these two royal heirs discover their kinship, their wills combine to become stronger, more grounded now they know who they are. With millions of displaced people around the word today, this need to find an identity is just as strong as ever it was in classical times, giving the opera a theme that resonates over time and space.

If it all sounds a bit grim and hard work as a narrative (and there are times when it is), the music, played by a wonderful orchestra under Martin Andre, offsets the trauma on stage with some tilting, soaring, searing melodies the beauty of which acts as a counterpoint to the action. Catherine Carby (Iphigenie) sings with great power and range, as she wrestles with her conscience, acting with a stillness that belies the turmoil in her soul - royal grace under pressure. Grant Doyle's Oreste is a full-on alpha male, but his voice shows great love for his one friend (Pylade, John-Colyn Gyeantey, also in good form) as well as his headstrong commitment to honour and overwhelming regret for his matricide. Craig Smith's thuggish Thoas bullies everyone until he gets his comeuppance at the hands of the newly reunited royal siblings who promise a more humane future for his peoples.

This is an opera that has no boozy party scenes of merriment so common in others performed regularly - its rewards are in the serious contemplation of human nature and the relevance of classical thought today, more than ever with its setting in a part of the world still blighted by conflict. Those lessons are sugared by such lovely arias sung so very well and the feeling that there's much more to explore in the myths that have fascinated mankind for thousands of years and the music that has done the same for hundreds. I'll certainly be back for more.

Photo Richard Hubert Smith

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