OperaUpClose's double bill matches the first great English opera with a new work by Polish composer Katarzyna Brochocka. Set in the late 19th century, Young Wife is based on a novel by Gabriela Zapolska. Its sole character is a recently married woman whose emotional dissatisfaction turns to despair when she discovers that her husband has married her for her money, and is having an affair with her former friend. Close to suicide, she is rescued by the birth of her daughter – an event that sets her on a new and happier path.
Narrated in the form of diary entries, the material might seem poorly suited to the stage, and would probably work just as well in concert form, but Robin Norton-Hale's production gives it an understated eloquence.
Two sopranos share the challenging title role, and both acquit themselves honourably. Maud Millar moves through the wide-ranging vocal setting with formidable assurance, her confidence underpinned by the composer's virtuosic playing of her own taxing piano part, which references various 19th-century styles while maintaining a modernist stance. Sarah Minns' concentrated vocalism is scarcely less striking and equally dramatically effective.
After the interval, Valentina Ceschi's Purcell staging transfers Dido and Aeneas to a locker room at Carthage High, where Zarah Hible and Freya Jacklin – both excellent – alternate as the tragic heroine, who here becomes the football team's homecoming queen. Forthright baritone Ian Beadle flexes his vocal muscles as the star college jock, Aeneas. And led by Phillipa Thomas's Britney beldame, the witches are Dido's envious cheerleader rivals.
This clever substitution is carried off with brilliance by the confident young cast. Musical standards are high under Alex Beetschen, who, together with Harry Blake, is responsible for some contemporary musical interpolations. Purcell may not have foreseen selfies or sexting, but his baroque masterpiece adapts effortlessly into an entertaining high-school musical.
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