Opera review: Oreste at Wilton's Music Hall
Oreste is an opera by Handel that is rarely seen, and for a logical reason: it is hardly an opera at all.
In the 18th century, it was quite common for leading composers to cobble together a few of their successful old tunes, fit them to new lyrics and produce a work they called a "pasticcio" (from the Italian for "pastry") suggesting something that has been patched together.
Our own word "pastiche" has a similar origin. Oreste was one of Handel's three such pasticcios and the current production at Wilton's Music Hall in East London shows what an excellent vehicle it is for showing off the talents of the Jette Parker Young Artists of the Royal Opera House.
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The story comes from a Greek myth featuring the children of Agamemnon. His daughter Ifigenia has been save from ritual sacrifice and is stranded on a remote island ruled over by the tyrant Tuarte. Her brother Oreste has been driven mad and also arrives on the island but he has a little problem that Toante has decreed that all strangers will be put to death.
Meanwhile, Oreste's wife Ermione also arrives on the island, nobody recognises anyone else and Tuarte falls in love with Ermione and sentences almost everyone else to death.
With the favoured method of execution involving bashing the victim's head in with a hammer, this production is full of gore, which goes surprisingly well with the ludicrous nature of the plot, the music hall origins of Wilton's, and the graffiti-laden scenery, but it's the quality of the singing and the music that are the real reason for going to see this.
Angela Simkin plays the part of Oreste in a beguilingly mad and twitchy manner, while the other two female cast members, Jennifer Davis (Ifigenia) and Vlada Borovko (Ermione) display gloriously precocious singing talent.
Of the men, Simon Shibambu is excellent as the tyrant Toante, while Gyula Nagy gives a splendidly crazy performance as Filotete, head executioner and captain of Toante's guard.
The impressive young cast is rounded off with Thomas Atkins as Ermione's companion Pilade, who seems the nearest to sanity of all the characters.
As if this were not all bizarre enough, the director Gerard Jones introduces an outrageous change to the ending, which helps explain why poor Oreste has been so twitchy throught the opera.
The music is provided by Southbank Sinfonia, impressively conducted by James Hendry.
With no orchestra pit to house the players, the small orchestra is mainly to one side of the stage, with a harpsichord continuo on the other side, joined by two horn players in the second half.
I was very impressed seeing James Hendry conducting at the Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Harrogate earlier this year, but the masterful way in which he held together two halves of the orchestra and the singers, all in different places was even more impressive.
Not a great opera, but glorious fun and well worth seeing.
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