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| Gluck: Iphigenia in Tauris - Danny Shelvey (Orestes) & the Furies - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera) |
Gluck: Iphigenia in Tauris; Francesca Chiejina, Danny Shelvey, Michael Lafferty, Dan D'Souza, director: Laura Attridge, Blackheath Halls Opera, conductor: Chris Stark; Blackheath Halls
Reviewed 23 September 2025
A sense of classicism and community combine with compelling individual performances to make this account of Gluck's great, but neglected opera into an engaging and moving evening in the theatre
Gluck's great French operas remain as tantalising a presence on the operatic stage as his big Italian hit, Orfeo ed Euridice is ubiquitous. I remember being bowled over by Iphigénie en Tauride when Kent Opera - remember them! - brought it to the Edinburgh Festival in the 1979 in a production conducted by Roger Norrington and directed by Norman Platt with Eiddwen Harrhy in the title role. The in the early 1990s, David Freeman's Opera Factory compressed both of Gluck's Iphigenia operas into one, rather unsatisfactory evening.
Since then, productions have been rather rare. Covent Garden presented a Robert Carsen production in 2007 (the first performance of the opera there since 1973) with Susan Graham [see my review not on Planet Hugill] and James Conway directed it for English Touring Opera with Catherine Carby in 2016 [see my review] Also in 2016, an enterprising small-scale production popped up at the Drayton Arms directed by Alastair Kitchen and with a cast that includes names that have become familiar [see my review].
Gluck's opera was premiered in 1779, his fifth opera for Paris. The work came at the end of a long career (his first opera dates from 1741) in which he had shown himself as a composer able to accommodate different national styles, and to innovate by synthesis. His Italian reform operas for Vienna merged elements of French and Italian opera, and this continued with his operas for Paris. Iphigenie en Tauride is a logical extension of this reform, effectively re-shaping the tragédie lyrique of Lully and Rameau into something more concentrated, more classical and more powerfully intense.
There is little in the way of ballet in the opera, and certainly none of the divertissements beloved of Lully and Rameau. There is also no explicit love interest and the main relationships are the re-establishing of the fraternal bond between Iphigénie and Oreste, and the intense friendship between Oreste and Pylade. This latter while couched exclusively in the language of friendship ('amitie' rather than 'amour'), is in fact one of the most homo-erotic relationships in a major 18th or 19th century opera.
Yet given the right singer in the title role, the results can be rewarding.
The work was a surprising yet effective and enterprising choice for this year's production from Blackheath Halls Opera.
Gluck: Iphigenia in Tauris - Francesca Chiejina, Emily Williams, Ava Reineke, Eva Hutchins - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)
Returning for its 19th year, Blackheath Halls Opera's production of Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris brought together Blackheath Halls Opera Chorus and Youth Company, Blackheath Halls Orchestra, and students from Greenvale School and Charlton Park Academy, along with students from Trinity Laban. The production was directed by Laura Attridge, conducted by Chris Stark, designed by Peiyao Wang, and movement by Corina Würsch with assistant movement director Sage Lacroix being a placement student from Central School of Speech and Drama. The opera was sung in a new English translation by Martin Pickard.
Francesca Chiejina (who sang the title role in Handel's Semele at Blackheath in 2023) was Iphigenia, with Danny Shelvey as Orestes, Michael Lafferty (a Trinity Laban graduate) as Pylades, and Dan D'Souza as Thoas. The cast included five Trinity Laban students, Emily Williams as the First Priestess with Ava Reineke and Eva Hutchins as priestesses, and Byron Davis-Hughes and Zac Conibear as Scythians.
Peiyao Wang's designs gave the work a sense of modern classicism with a neutral gray stage area that emphasised the structural qualities of the space. The chorus was in black and white, with white predominating and a variety of styles of dress that veered towards simplicity of line yet allowed for young people in white t-shirts and one man in a long white traditional garment. The result was surprisingly effective. The priestesses were in black, which helped them stand out, whilst the soloists were all in autumnal colours. The furies were identified by a reddish magenta colour.
Laura Attridge's production cleaved to this simplicity and her treatment of the chorus was very effective. Some nice direct blocking that brought out the neo-classicism of the work yet with some detail which gave the chorus members a sense of identity. There was no dance group and the only movement of that nature was in the chorus of Thoas' supporters. The Furies were, frankly, a rather dignified lot which chimed in with the ethos of the production. There were a couple of moments when having a dedicated dance group would have been useful to take the focus off the community chorus in the music and movement moments. But overall, I was impressed by the way Attridge had managed to marshal Blackheath Halls Opera's strengths without over egging Gluck's opera. After all, Gluck offers none of the vigorous ensemble opportunities that 19th century operas can do.
What the production did do was throw the focus on the soloists, giving them space to command the music and drama. Thankfully they did so in a compelling manner.
Francesca Chiejina made an impassioned Iphigenia. She brought a sense of vibrant emotion to her vocal lines yet allied to a sense of style that paid tribute to Gluck's classicism. You never once felt Chiejina trying to push the music towards Norma or beyond as can sometimes happen. She sang with a lovely sense of ample line that drew you and made Gluck's music expressive, yet somehow compelling. Chiejina made you believe in Iphigenia and her various dilemmas through the opera really mattered. Iphigenia is the focus of the work and Chiejina repaid that in spades. She never did too much and had a way of being stationary that still moved you.
Attridge and translator Martin Pickard chose to make the implicit explicit in the relationship of Orestes and Pylades. From the outset it was clear, both in language and body language that they were lovers and clearly Danny Shelvey and Michael Lafferty bought into this. Their investment in the two men's relationship climaxed with a passionate kiss, thus giving the work an emotional high point that it lacks as there is no conventional heterosexual love interest.
Danny Shelvey was a name that was new to me and his experience extends from classic opera repertoire with Glyndebourne and Scottish Opera, to contemporary opera including Phil Venables' The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions. Tall and personable, he had an ideal physique for the hero yet this was combined with a sense of musical style that made Orestes' somewhat stiff depiction in the opera into something emotionally engaging. There was a personal intensity to Shelvey's depiction of Orestes' struggles with the Furies, never resorting to grand guignol. Simply, I loved the way he sang Gluck's music and like Chiejina's depiction of Iphigenia, there was something stylish yet compelling here.
Michael Lafferty made Pylades passionate companion, indeed not a little over emotional. In large doses, this Pylades' emotionalism might be wearing, but the character gets too little stage time and Lafferty made it count. From the outset, Lafferty and Shelvey established the pair's relationship so that when, in Act Three, they bickered passionately about who was going to die for whom there was both a sense of a couple arguing and the feeling that this did indeed matter. We last saw Michael Lafferty as a fine, commanding Jupiter in Waterperry Opera's recent production of Handel's Semele. I rather felt, however, that the centre of gravity of the role of Pylades seemed to sit slightly too high for him. His performance brought out the passionate intensity of the character and whilst his singing did not lack style he was not quite able to spin those elegant high-lying lines that the role needs.
Dan D'Souza managed to make something slightly heroic, rather stylish and definitely rather sexy from Thoas, who can too often be seen as a boorish thug. His two interventions in the opera had an admirable and enlivening vigour too them, yet were sung with requisite style and for once this Thoas was a noble savage.
Emily Williams, who sang the first priestess, is a final year undergraduate at Trinity Laban. She sang with style and elegance, whilst hinting at a sense of underlying passion. She was admirably supported and partnered by fellow Trinity Laban students Ava Reineke and Eva Hutchins as the two other priestesses. In an imaginative touch, the three channelled the goddess Diana's voice at the denouement rather bringing on a déesse ex machina. Two further Trinity Laban students, Zac Conibear and Byron Davis-Hughes made the Scythians seem vigorous yet surprisingly personable.
With few exception the choruses did not offer the opportunities for vigorous ensemble that non-professional ensembles enjoy but Blackheath Halls Opera Chorus sang with dignity and conviction. They managed to make the sense of community believable and created a fine backdrop for the soloists and there was even a nice moment for the youth company.
Gluck's score is a challenge for a non-professional orchestra such as Blackheath Halls Orchestra. Gluck offers little room to hide when it comes to uncertainties of pitch of rhythm, everything shows. Certainly, the orchestra took a little time to settle but thankfully Chris Stark did not make the mistake of getting them to compensate by being over emphatic. The playing was fully a part of the whole production and there were plenty of moments to enjoy, particularly in more striking passages such as Danny Shelvey's solo aria in Act Three.
This performance was not perfect, by any means, but I have seen far too many fully professional production that still manage to get Gluck wrong. Attridge, Stark and their team managed to make a less is more approach work, and the commitment and sense of community and ensemble that chorus and orchestra brought to the evening made a supportive backdrop to a group of compelling, yet stylish performances from the principals.
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