Offenbach from Scotland

Orpheus in the Underworld (Scottish Opera) - Young Vic Maria, 30 November 2011 

The lips were unlacquered and the bewbage was seasonally swathed, but there was no disguising that towering stack of raven curls. Opera-loving Nancy Dell'Olio is just one of the new BFFs Rory Bremner has picked up from his short-lived stint on Strictly Come Dancing. Holly Valance and Anita Dobson (attached as ever to the legendary Brian May) also found time to drop in on the London opening of Scottish Opera's Orpheus in the Underworld, for which Bremner has created a new translation.

And appropriately enough - because Bremner's translation (adaptation, to be more accurate), updates Offenbach's operetta from ancient Greece to the media-driven celebrity culture of today.

Now-obscure Second Empire targets are replaced by WAGs, bankers and Berlusconi. Orpheus is a preening composer, a violin-armed Lloyd-Webber. Eurydice is Made in Essex from her acrylic tips to her platform toes (except when she sings, and her vowels revert to conservatoire). The pinstriped upper crust gods hang out wearily in the Bar Olympus, where barman Mercury keeps them topped up with champagne. The Underworld is another bar, this time Pluto's. The Mary Whitehouse-like Public Opinion, clad in a newsprint suit of lurid headlines, keeps them all in line.

The targets are broad and the humour often crude. If you're the sort of person who snickers when Michel Roux Jr talks about boning a chicken on Masterchef (raises hand sheepishly) then you will gasp at Bremner's unparalleled wit; if not, the night may pass slowly.

Any subtlety (and granted, there's not much) in Bremner's work is flattened into the ground by the production though. Faced with what seems like more dialogue than music, director Oliver Mears opts for the sort of frantically-paced overblown mugging last seen on the Benny Hill Show circa 1971. It soon gets overbearing in the intimacy of the Young Vic's Maria studio. The scene where Jupiter (the stoutly-built Brendan Collins) disguises himself as a fly to seduce Eurydice is the best respite.

It's a shame because the singing is uniformly fine, with Brendan Collins, Jane Harrington (Eurydice) and Daire Halpin (Diana) standouts. There are no surtitles but every word is crystal-clear (more of a novelty than it should be). But while I don't wish to criticise Ruth Wilkinson, who played beautifully, the pub opera-style upright piano accompaniment exposes a certain monotony in Offenbach's melodising.

production photos: Scottish Opera

Comments

[Rabbie]

You at least had the distraction of c list celebraties. We were there the next evening and could not decide if it was at schoolboy or undergraduate level - unfunny, offensively vulgar and the single piano removed the possibility of revelling at least in the score. At least two distinguished critics beat a hasty and obvious retreat at the interval and I wish we had. And to think we could have been at the Glyndebourne Tour on special offer tickets in Wimbledon. One weeps

[Sir Lunchalot]

Afraid that I couldn't disagree with Rabbie more - saw this brilliantly funny production tonight and will be trying to get tickets to see it again. I guess it may have helped that I know the amateur version quite well, but my partner was new to Offenbach and loved it too. IM is right - it all depends on whether this version suits your sense of humour.

[Rabbie]

de gustibus non est disputandum I know but while a veiled reference to it might be mildly amusing, prolonged simulated anal rape raised titters from only some in the theatre. That was probably the lowest point in the evening but there were not enough highs to compensate. And we still had the vivid memory of the perfectly judged Opera North Ruddigore (Barbican last week)