Rising to the challenge: Britten's The Rape of Lucretia from Royal Academy Opera directed by Paul Carr & conducted by Lada Valesova

Britten: The Rape of Lucretia - Ellie Donald, Ella Orehek-Coddington, Pasel Basov, Viktoria Melkonian - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Britten: The Rape of Lucretia; Ella Orehek-Coddington, Oliver Heuzenreuder, Yihui Wang, MAdeleine Perring, Pavel Basov, director: Paul Carr, conductor: Lada Valesova, Royal Academy Opera; Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Royal Academy of Music

A stripped down production that focused on the singers with a performance in the title role from Ella Orehek-Coddington that transformed the drama in a production where everyone rose to the challenge.

Britten's The Rape of Lucretia seems to be cropping up rather a lot in theatres this anniversary year, which is something of a surprise given that the first thing any review says about the work is often a comment about Ronald Duncan's libretto. But then 2026 represents not only the 50th anniversary of Britten's death but the 80th anniversary of the opera being premiered at Glyndebourne. And as English Touring Opera showed last Autumn, in the right hands it is a powerful piece indeed [see my review], and more recently it was the turn of HGO [see Mark Berry's review for Seen and Heard].

Now the Royal Academy Opera presented two performances at the Royal Academy of Music's (RAM) Susie Sainsbury Theatre directed by Paul Carr and conducted by Lada Valesova, with costumes by Michelle Bradbury and lighting by Jake Wiltshire. We caught the second performance on Friday 15 May 2026. Ella Orehek-Coddington was Lucretia and Oliver Heuzenroeder was Tarquinius with Yihui Wang as Male Chorus, Madeleine Perring as Female Chorus, Pavel Basov as Collatinus, Harrison Robb as Junius, Viktoria Melkonian as Bianca and Ellie Donald as Lucia.

Britten: The Rape of Lucretia - Oliver Heuzenroeder, Harrison Robb (with Pavel Basov in the background) - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Opera performances at conservatoires always have an element of challenge to them, encouraging the young singers to expand their horizons. For this performance one of the challenge came in the form of Ronald Duncan's rather wordy and less than felicitous libretto especially as several singers were not native English speakers. All concerned, however, had to work hard to make those words work and, by and large, this was successful. Given the size of the theatre, I did wonder whether the production should have done without surtitles to give the singers that extra challenge of projecting the words and their meaning.

Another challenge was the production itself, which was clearly stripped back. Beyond Michelle Bradbury's costumes and Jake Wiltshire's lighting there was little in the way of set or props and what there was tended towards the evocative and abstract. There was also a refreshing lack of stage business: director Paul Carr seems to have decided that if the libretto described something then the audience did not need to see it, another challenge for the singers. The action was often abstract and Carr did not shy away from near static pictures where the focus was again on the singers.

The results were striking in the extreme and if the results did not quite lift the work into the stratosphere, the performance was a hell of a lot more than creditable. 

Mezzo-soprano Ella Orehek-Coddington was recently sharing the title role in Handel's Rinaldo at the RAM [see my interview]. As a dramatic mezzo-soprano in waiting - hers is very much a voice I am keen to hear where it goes in the future - she made interesting casting for Lucretia. This Lucretia was certainly not fragile and Orehek-Coddington brought a strong physical presence to Lucretia's early scenes. The role, of course, transforms following the crucial rape scene and here Orehek-Coddington drew on the dramatic possibilities of her voice and projected Britten's work into other areas such as Berlioz's Dido. She lacked the inner nobility and pathos of someone like Janet Baker (who I heard in the role in the 1970s) but drew out the character's inner strength. And with the production's lack of business, the focus in these scenes was on Orehek-Coddington.

Britten: The Rape of Lucretia - Yihui Wang, Oliver Heuzenroeder, Ella Orehek-Coddington, Madeleine Perring - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Oliver Heuzenroeder understudied Tarquinius for HGO, and he impressed when we saw him as Ned Keene in Britten's Peter Grimes with British Youth Opera last year [see my review]. Here he projected a strong sense of the character's sense of I'm sexually attractive, and I know it. This Tarquinius in his semi-transparent top and leather jeans had a sexual swagger about him and a devil-may-care attitude along with entitlement. There were moments when I wished Heuzenroeder could have given us some more relaxed tone. When he did so, the results were lovely and I wanted more. This was a Tarquinius who captured the combination of magnetism and disgust that we feel.

Yihui Wang made an edgy, intense Male Chorus and you were conscious of the way he projected the words allied to the character's lack of distance. Whilst the Male Chorus might say he was a disinterested mirror, this Male Chorus was definitely involved and the vibrancy of Wang's performance made that clear. His is not a classic 'English' lyric tenor (why would it be, he is Chinese), but he brought an interesting new perspective on the role. He was ably partnered by Madeleine Perring as the Female Chorus. Whilst the two were intense and dramatic in the opening scene of Act Two, Perring was a far more poised, classical presence, ably balancing Wang yet evincing sympathy for the women simply via her expressive singing.

Pavel Basov's robust physique and dark, dark toned voice make him a shoe in for an operatic villain, so it was fascinating to find him cast apparently against type as Lucretia's husband, Collatinus. [He was also Eustazio in the RAM's recent Rinaldo.] In Act One, he was very much one of the boys, yet in Act Two Basov revealed a poetic, tender side which suggests he has an interesting career ahead. His scene with Orehek-Coddington after Lucretia has revealed what has happened was touching indeed, especially with two such vibrant voices.

Britten: The Rape of Lucretia - Yihui Wang (with Viktoria Melkonian in background) - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Harrison Robb made Junius someone who enjoyed manipulating people for the hell of it, and throughout Robb gave Junius a knowing smirk. You wanted to slap him and felt very down that the opera did not give the character his comeuppance!

Ellie Donald [who was impressive as Armida in the recent Rinaldo] was a strong Lucia, bringing a nicely youthful cast to her voice without seeming too naive. Viktoria Melkonian brought fine support as Bianca, giving the character a solidity without trying too hard to make her old. The women's scene at the opening of Act Two was a complete delight, a moment of sheer joy in the darkness.

In the pit, Lada Valesova and the thirteen players of the Royal Academy Sinfonia brought out the vivid colours of the score. They did not try to pretend this was music written on a symphonic scale and indeed the theatre did not need this. Instead, we got big chamber music with lots of individual yet strongly coloured voices.

Britten: The Rape of Lucretia - Madeline Perring, Ellie Donald - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

This was one of those performances which seemed to come together in the closing scenes as Orehek-Coddington drew Lucretia into a different dramatic world.

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