Live, Video: Kritiken zu klassischen Konzerten, Opern, Ballett und Tanz finden | Rape of Lucretia (Die Schändung der Lucretia), The

A modern framing device drives home the sad timelessness of Britten's 1946 opera.

Rarement donnée sur les scènes lyriques, l'œuvre de Benjamin Britten bénéficie d'une belle interprétation musicale mais pâtit d'une mise en scène trop peu engagée pour en traduire le message aujourd'hui.

Oliver Mears' new production of Britten's chamber opera is a visceral reflection on tyranny and sexual violence.

The problematic nature of Britten's Rape of Lucretia is well-known: Sydney Chamber Opera's production attempts to navigate it via gender inversion. 

Bleak and uncompromising in vision and intention, Britten's The Rape of Lucretia gets a suitably dark, discomfiting outing at Guildhall. 

The Rape of Lucretia may be something of a problem piece, but Fiona Shaw's production is an excellent piece of ensemble theatre set around some very fine performances of music of rare beauty.

What makes this production of The Rape of Lucretia stand out is the singers’ acting. It’s immediate, it’s integrated into the singing, and it’s better than anything I’ve seen in any opera production before. 

Drawing a line of suffering from ancient Rome to Golgotha to the concentration camps, Britten’s blank postcard from Belsen strikes to the heart of humanity. The Rape of Lucretia is brilliantly realised by the Royal Academy of Music.

Britten’s opera The Rape of Lucretia is, as the title implies, not an easy opera subject-wise. It is based on André Obey’s play Le viol de Lucrèce, which in turn is partially based on Shakespeare’s poem The Rape of Lucrece. This was Britten’s third opera, and the first of his so-called chamber operas, operas with small orchestras and small casts.

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland moved from its main theatre into the smaller opera studio for the latest offering from the Opera School students, Britten’s Rape of Lucretia. Premièred at Glyndebourne in 1949, this opera for eight singers and thirteen orchestra players significantly gained intensity by being performed in a chamber space rather than a main stage.

The Holland Festival boasts quite an impressive relationship with Britten and his works. Tonight’s chamber opera, The Rape of Lucretia was first performed at the festival in 1947 with Britten, Peter Pears and Kathleen Ferrier (for whom the opera was written) and the English Opera Group. Tonight’s performance with Oliver Knussen at the helm is another proud continuation of this tradition.