A Village Romeo and Juliet/L'Arlesiana - review

Both Frederick Delius's 1907 opera A Village Romeo and Juliet and Francesco Cilèa's L'Arlesiana, from 1897, have one thing in common. Each is very rarely performed, yet each contains one number that has transcended the neglect to which the parent piece has been subjected. In Delius's case, the escapee is the orchestral interlude The Walk to the Paradise Garden, while in Cilèa's it is the tenor Federico's plangent lament E la Solita Storia del Pastore, beloved of Pavarotti and others.

There, however, the similarities end. Delius's opera, adapted from a short story by the Swiss novelist Gottfried Keller, is saturated with Wagnerian influence – it even ends with a Love-Death. But the music, for good and ill, is unmistakably that of Delius, sweepingly ecstatic and beautiful at times, but mostly lacking the forward momentum, let alone the darts of musical characterisation, that sustain dramatic interest.

Stephen Medcalf's production concentrates on essentials, eschews naturalism, gives the climactic Walk a touching staging, and pulls off a deft climax as the lovers Sali and Vreli drown. John Bellemer and Jessica Muirhead are an unflaggingly committed pair of lovers, while David Stout makes the most of the opera's best role, the mysterious Dark Fiddler who lures them from the everyday world. Rory Macdonald conducts with utter conviction. But it is obvious why even Delius's best does not generally hold the stage.

Rosetta Cucchi's bold, intelligent and sensitive staging of L'Arlesiana, by contrast, makes a compelling case for Cilèa's opera becoming the established repertoire piece that Delius's is not. The music is rooted in the late 19th-century Italian tradition; the story of a man's obsession for a woman we never see has powerful modern resonance; and the characters are more than archetypes. David Angus's conducting drives the action along, and in Annunziata Vestri as Federico's anguished mother, the evening offers a star vocal performance. Mariangela Sicilia is nearly in the same league as the rejected Vivetta, and Dmitry Golovnin as Federico makes a convincing journey from innocence to madness.