Wexford's Massenet double bill highlights the French composer's technical facility in being able to move beyond his regular musical and dramatic comfort zones. Set during the French Revolution, Thérèse focuses on a three-cornered romantic relationship between the Marquis Armand, his Girondist friend André and the latter's wife, who chooses to die alongside her honourable husband rather than flee with her aristocratic lover.
The score may not be the composer's more memorable, but its autumnal intimacy is appealingly conveyed by a cast led by Nora Sourouzian in the title role, with Philippe Do (Armand) and Brian Mulligan (André) vying for her attention.
All of them show resilience as well as versatility in reappearing in La Navarraise, a bolder and at times surprisingly brutal piece set during an internal 19th-century Spanish conflict and focusing on the tragically misinterpreted heroism of Anita, the eponymous woman from Navarre. Sourouzian once again hurls herself convincingly into the vocal fray, while André Barbe's Guernica-inspired set for Renaud Doucet's 1930s Civil War staging feels more apt than their museum restoration workshop does in Thérèse. Carlos Izcaray conducts purposefully.
This year's major discovery, however, turns out to be Christina, Queen of Sweden by the forgotten Italian Jacopo Foroni, who died of cholera in Stockholm in 1858 aged just 34. Exploring the Swedish monarch's agonizing between private and public interests, the large-scale score rises to ambitious heights under Andrew Greenwood's baton, and with soprano Helena Dix offering unstinting commitment in the title role. Designed with flair by Jamie Vartan, Stephen Medcalf's production draws parallels between Cristina's abdication and that of Edward VIII, providing a handsome frame for the perfectly focused drama in the foreground.
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