Herculanum was a long lost opera, and should have stayed that way - review

With highlights including a bacchanale, an ex machina appearance of Satan and the eruption of Vesuvius, Félicien David’s Herculanum was one of the most popular grand operas of the 1860s, admired for its orchestration and melodies by that exigent critic Hector Berlioz.

But its subsequent descent into oblivion was headlong, and until a recording released last year and now this Wexford Festival staged revival, it languished unperformed.

I doubt it will be heard again – its merits are slender.

A variation on a theme embracing Tannhäuser, Samson et Dalila, Thais and Salome, it offers the spectacle of godly virtue seduced by pagan sensuality – always a neat pretext for a naughty display of female flesh followed by a sharp slap of divine retribution.

Here a band of persecuted early Christians are marooned in the Pompeian volcano zone, ruled by the corrupt and decadent siblings Nicanor and Olympia who attempt to convert the primly puritanical young lovers Lilia and Hélios to their creed of erotic and alcoholic excess.

Little more than an excuse for spectacle, the plot is ineptly handled and the moral posturing of the central characters creaks. David’s score is rather more engaging, notable for some vigorous choral writing and two smoothly eloquent duets which account for Berlioz’s good opinion. But there’s an awful lot of eyewash too, and David shows no sense of carving a taut dramatic arc or sustaining emotional momentum.