Opera reviews: Le Grand Macabre, La Traviata and Written on Skin

Sir Simon Rattle takes up his post as the LSO’s music director in September, amid plans for a new world-class concert hall. Visiting his future home, Rattle last week conducted Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti’s surreal satire on sex, politics and death Le Grand Macabre in an extraordinary semi-staging by the inventive Peter Sellars. 

The opera begins with a blast of motor horns to a background video of sheep grazing in the shadow of Chernobyl. A blood-thirsty dictator, Nekrotzar (Pavlo Hunka), has brought about the destruction of his country through nuclear war. He is still acclaimed by the multitude (London Symphony Chorus bustling down the aisles) as a great leader, while people succumb to sickness.

The dying Police Chief Gepopo (soprano Audrey Luna) raves from an intensive care unit. There are splendid performances from Peter Hoare as drunken Piet the Pot, Elizabeth Watts as young lover Amanda and Heidi Melton as voracious Mescalina – all living for the day. First seen nearly 50 years ago during the cold war, the work seems uncannily relevant today. 

Richard Eyre’s 1994 staging of Verdi’s La Traviata has proved a gold-plated investment for the Royal Opera House. Now in its 14th revival, it has seen off a number of gimmick-ridden productions that have been quietly shelved after one or two showings. 

You may quibble at the grandeur of Bob Crowley’s set, which requires two intervals for scene changes, but it works in conjuring up the ostentation of 19th century Paris society.

Each revival requires a singer with the voice and the looks to play charismatic courtesan Violetta, the “fallen woman” of the title. Lebanese-Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury, in her Royal Opera debut, is ideal for the part.

She has a delicate beauty and an agile coloratura that after a hesitant first night “Sempre libera” (always free) developed richly in the following scenes. Moreover, El-Khoury can act. The final reconciliation of the dying Violetta with her lover Alfredo brings a tear in the eye. 

Russian tenor Sergey Romanovsky, also making his Royal Opera debut, is a handsomely ardent Alfredo. Artur Rucinski as Alfredo’s father Giorgio Germont, who forces Violetta to relinquish his son and save the family honour, has an impressive baritone but desperately needs stage direction. After the run ending February 7, La Traviata returns from June 14 to July 4, as part of BP Big Screen events.(roh.org.uk/about/bp-big-screens). 

VERDICT: 4/5

George Benjamin’s cool shocker Written On Skin returns in its first Covent Garden revival. Based on a medieval European legend, it’s a tale of illicit passion culminating in murder, cannibalism and suicide. A rich landowner, the Protector, invites an artist to create an illuminated book celebrating his political power and domestic bliss. His young wife, Agnes, seduces the artist, known as the Boy, and persuades him to portray her in the manuscript as a free spirit, rather than her husband’s obedient slave. 

The ending is gruesome but Katie Mitchell’s forensic directing and Vicki Mortimer’s split set of medieval hall and framing contemporary archive serve to distance us, as does Martin Crimp’s libretto narrated in the third person. 

Baritone Christopher Purves returns as the brutal Protector. Barbara Hannigan is thrilling as the sexually defiant Agnes and Iestyn Davies captures the Boy’s ambivalence. George Benjamin conducts his many-faceted score.

VERDICT: 4/5

Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre London Symphony Orchestra/RattleBarbican Hall, London EC2 (Run ended. barbican.org.uk )

Verdi’s La Traviata Royal Opera Royal Opera House, London WC2 (Tickets: £11-£200; 020 7304 4000/ roh.org.uk)

George Benjamin’s Written on Skin Royal Opera Royal Opera House, London WC2 (Tickets: £6-£120)