Thomas Middleton’s 16th century playscript has been set to music by Edward Lambert, to create a new opera: “Masque Of Vengeance”. The subject matter is terrific for opera. Using the actual play text as a libretto, though, did mean that at times the music felt stilted and repetitive, as Middleton didn’t have a lot of variation in his writing style, and it did feel like a constraint on the composer. Lambert did work around it though, recasting Vindicio as a mezzo-soprano, which gave a much fuller sound as almost half the cast were female voices; and making use of ensemble singing where everybody is effectively shouting at each other, but in polyphonic harmony.
Mezzo-soprano Leila Zanette had a wonderful time in the title role. The Revenger, Vindicio, was played as a man who, to enact his plan on getting vengeance for his dead fiancée, disguises himself as an attractive procuress in the sex industry. Zanette’s sultry charm was mixed with a singing voice of controlled passion, in both personas.
Making up the corrupt court was the royal family of nightmares – and designer Tabitha Benton-Evans did helpfully have a pile of skulls and a severed male head on a pole on set, just to reinforce that. Striding around in sharp modern clothing that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a Milan catwalk, the local royals bawled each other out, reinforced hereditary status (as the death toll went up, the crown was regularly being passed around), and engaged in the odd bit of illicit sex. Baritone Charles Johnston was head of the pack as the King, and got his tongue quite realistically cut out halfway through – a particularly cruel torture for an opera singer.
Counter-tenor Francis Gush sang with the purity of a choir boy and the soul of a ghoul as the Prince. Tenor Lawrence Thackeray had just the right note of sliminess as the King’s illegitimate son Spurio. Tenor Will Diggle was the appalling adolescent Vacuo, the King’s new stepson, and bass Christopher Foster arranged for Vacuo’s death with great satisfaction and rich vocal resonance as the courtier Antonio.
Soprano Laure Meloy was quietly carnal as the Duchess, new wife to the King. Soprano Madeline Robinson rewrote the ingénue trope in her portrayal of Vindicio’s sister Virginia, being both sharply brittle in her singing and grittily teenage in her persona. Contralto Mae Heydorn fleshed out the weak-natured mother Gratiana, especially after giving in to the temptation to sell her daughter’s body: – it’s the first time I’ve heard someone sing opera in a pleading whine.
Director David Edwards got all the violence staged cleanly (apart from the plethora of stage blood), and kept the smell of sexual tension in the air. Alex Norton and Adrian Salinero were dynamic accompanists on the piano.
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