Gerard Jones / Rezensionen

Gerard Jones (director) has his production set towards the end of the 1960s in a very sympathetically no longer very fresh country residence of an English nobleman (stage: Anna Yates) play. The walls are covered almost to the ceiling with walnut paneling and the whole setting, especially Donna Raphael's magnificent costumes, exudes an English atmosphere, just like you know it from old detective films. The Count and Countess are still from the older generation, the staff, speaking of the widespread daring among the staff, had already taken part in the 1968 revolution, much to the Count's chagrin. In his highly sensitive staging, Jones closely follows the libretto and the music, and so he manages to bring Mozart's masterpiece to the stage in a refreshing, even thrilling way, much to the delight of the audience. The theoretical underlining with thoughts about the value of work, dependency and freedom ("For whom or what do I actually work?") is certainly not wrong,Marc Hostettler sets the stage in the right light with wonderful details such as the antler chandelier or the bar located behind a mock library.

Oreste, taken from Euripides, was the first of the three pasticcio operas (sort of paste-ups) which Handel himself created from his own works. It outlines Oreste’s reunion with his sister Iphigenia (remarkably secure soprano Jennifer Davis) while she is serving as high priestess of Diana in Tauris operating the harsh laws of King Toante (bass Simon Shibambu in crazed dictator mode), which require all strangers to be sacrificed. For Jones, the horrific cruelty of the classics translates easily into a grungy post-apocalyptic world where order has entirely broken down: a tagged urban underbelly where all protagonists wonder in a traumatised daze of psychopathic bloodlust. Acting is strong – we shall surely see more of baritone Gyula Nagy, and soprano Vlada Borovko, who lands in this world like something out of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and sings with style to match.The eight-strong Southbank Sinfonia under James Hendry impressed, with reliable tempos and much lyricism, and the lower strings relishing every scrunch on offer. But for all the ingenious attention to gruesome detail, it’s not entirely clear what this Handel-Mad Max mash-up really adds to our understanding of either.