Hilary Summers / Recenzijas

For almost 20 years, George Benjamin has been thinking about composing an opera. In that time there have been plenty of rumours of him collaborating with leading playwrights, but it is only now that he has found the right person to work with: the British dramatist and translator Martin Crimp. What they have produced, the "lyric tale" Into the Little Hill, premiered under the banner of the Festival d'Automne in Paris, is as entrancingly beautiful as anything Benjamin has written.

Ramin Gray’s stage direction, revised for this new space, adds its own level of enjoyable perverseness, controlled mayhem and humour. From the ‘fourth wall’-defying ploy of having the cast members occupying the front row of the stalls when not on stage (proving that not every farce needs doors) to the clever interaction of singers and on-stage instrumentalists, everything comes together to give Barry’s 90-minute score the context it needs. As with the music, the production plays with our pre-conceived ideas and completely dispels any sense of the play’s Victorian roots. Lady Bracknell, played by a basso profundo (nothing strange there, given the drag interpretations on the West End stage and elsewhere), is here a man in a pinstripe suit; failed novelist Miss Prism reads Fifty Shades... while her pupil Cecily is distracted; the entire cast brings out mobile phones to look up Jack’s father in the Army List. Most of the cast members are alumni of the production’s initial run in 2013, and they all played their roles with such relish that one can imagine they’ve been itching to return to them in the intervening years. Despite all the composer’s frequent writing against vocal type – a challenge to the singer in itself – it wasn’t enough to hide the sheer elan and musicianship involved in bringing these characters to life. Paul Curievici (Jack) and Benedict Nelson (Algernon) both had their moments of refined lyricism yet were equally adept at quick-delivery one-liners and farcical stage business. Stephanie Marshall’s Gwendolen conveyed just the right vocal weight to suggest that she could indeed become like her mother, Lady B; and Claudia Boyle’s Royal Opera debut as Cecily brought a neat line in anarchically flighty coloratura to her portrayal. Alan Ewing was a commanding Lady Bracknell, with the odd touch of fragile falsetto to counteract the character’s storming off into German elsewhere, and contralto Hilary Summers used her own ‘profundo’ range to give weight to her encapsulation of Miss Prism’s insecurities. Kevin West, also new to the cast, made the most of his cameo as Chasuble the parson, as did Simon Wilding with his ever-present but vocally reticent Lane/Merriman, the servant seemingly getting his ‘revenge’ with a last plate-smashing spree to close the work. The running text projected on to the back wall of the stage was superflouous given the excellent diction from everyone involved. The accompanying chamber ensemble has a virtuoso role in Barry’s score, and the players of the Britten Sinfonia under conductor Tim Murray were constantly kept on their toes. The playing was brash, refined and dazzling as required and the brass in particular – from trilling horns to stratospherically dancing trumpet – deserve particular praise.

And the singers have to be versatile; for instance, the accomplished British baritone Mark Stone (who will be performing Wotan in Norway next month) has to sing ‘The White Knight, The Cheshire Cat, a Soldier, Bottle 3, Cake 3, Baby 3, Oyster 3, Passenger 5, and Daisy 3’