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Hipermestra, opera review: Fine cast lead the way in fusion of mythology and modernity

Dilemma: Raffaele Pe and Emöke Baráth: Tristram Kenton
Dilemma: Raffaele Pe and Emöke Baráth: Tristram Kenton

​It’s half a century now since Glyndebourne put Monteverdi’s lesser-known contemporary Francesco Cavalli on the map with Raymond Leppard’s voluptuous realisations of L’Ormindo and La Calisto. Now, in an age more attuned to historical performance practice, William Christie and a mere eight infinitely resourceful players of the OAE offer the UK premiere of Hipermestra.

King Danao, fearing invasion, orders his fifty daughters to marry his brother’s fifty sons and murder their husbands on their wedding night. All obey, except Hipermestra, Graham Vick tells the story of the battle of her conscience and the bloodshed that ensues, shifting the action to an unspecified Middle Eastern location in modern times.

Some questioned the recourse to potentially Islamophobic tropes such as the stoning of disobedient women or execution videos. And indeed, without careful handling, mythological excess too easily morphs into racist stereotyping. But Vick’s intention is surely to suggest that beauty and depravity coexist universally. The moral dilemmas are ours too.

And the evening’s most memorable moment came immediately after the interval when a lone violinist struck up mournfully in the smoking ruins of Argos, joined by another musician, then more, all dressed as refugees. The power of music in the face of inhumanity has rarely been more movingly asserted.

A uniformly fine cast, mostly young, included Emöke Baráth as an appealing Hipermestra and Raffaele Pe as her sorely tested lover Linceo. More responsive to the (admittedly vestigial) emotional content of Cavalli’s melodic lines – there’s all too little really stirring arioso and the evening seems a very long one – were Ana Quintans as Elisa and Renato Dolcini as Danao.

Mark Wilde, splendidly transgressive as a bearded nurse, Berenice, provided comic relief, especially when he wrestled with Christie, like the players drawn effectively into the action.

Until July 8, Glyndebourne; glyndebourne.com