Opera Scotland

Rape of Lucretia 1976Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Rape of Lucretia

After the success of the productions of Albert Herring (1966), Turn of the Screw (1970), and Midsummer Night’s Dream (1972), it was inevitable that the company would add to the repertoire of Britten chamber works. This production, by Anthony Besch, like the first two, was also a useful piece for the company to take on its regular foreign tours, the first one being to Germany, soon after its opening on the spring tour.

John Stoddart's designs were an entirely appropriate period interpretation of tent and villa, atmospherically lit, and Roderick Brydon brought out lots of detail in the orchestration, with particular success in projecting the sense of heat. The cast had no weaknesses, led by John Robertson and Catherine Wilson as mediaeval clerics. Patricia Kern brought great dignity to Lucretia, while Malcolm King and Malcolm Donnelly made the two generals completely differentiated young men. The hot-headed Tarquinius of Stuart Harling was unusually effective, projecting the viciousness but also a sense almost of vulnerability.

When the production arrived at the Theatre Royal season early in 1977 Robert Tear and John Shirley-Quirk joined the cast as Male Chorus and Collatinus. They had sung these roles several times with the English Opera Group, but had initially been intended by Scottish Opera for a revival of Peter Grimes, which was dropped for financial reasons.