Grange Park Opera, Surrey
David Pountney's striking staging of this timely tale of a Ukrainian warlord battling Russian power unsettles the stomach as much as it titillates the ear.
David Alden's blood-spattered production of Mazeppa made headlines for English National Opera back in 1984 with its graphic depiction of execution by chainsaw. And, as David Pountney's striking production for Grange Park Opera proves, Tchaikovsky's rarely staged melodic sleeping beauty has lost none of its power to unsettle the stomach while titillating the ear.
The work is timely. The Pushkin poem at the opera's heart concerns an 18th-century Ukrainian war hero whose grab for independence wouldn't be realised until 1991. That the grizzled Hetman (a term for an administrative ruler) is also a relentless torturer who murders his latest girlfriend's father is, to a curious extent, neither here nor there. Throughout the opera, we are rooting for him, if not all, then certainly most of the way.
Historically, Mazeppa was a regional leader who defied Peter the Great in the hope of freeing his country from the Russian yoke. Tchaikovsky's romantic subplot concerns Mariya, a young woman who leaves her parents for a life of adventure with the charismatic warlord. When her father tries to shop him to the tsar, the old man is promptly handed over to Mazeppa to be killed. After the Hetman is defeated in battle, Mariya duly loses her mind, expiring on the corpse of a faithful childhood friend.
Directorially it's presented as very much a play for today, with Francis O'Connor's efficient, movable set and Tim Mitchell's stark lighting creating an all too recognisable world where oligarchs and mercenaries vie for power and violent death is only a heartbeat away. After an oddly sluggish start, Pountney is quickly into his stride. Repurposing the famous hopak (an energetic Ukrainian dance) as an interlude, he even finds a moment of humour as the lovers embark on a crazy choreographed motorcycle ride, stopping off at a motel for a quickie before hitting the road again. The gruesome violence, when it comes, includes the extraction of several teeth, one eyeball and execution by giant jump leads.
Grange Park has assembled a fine cast led by David Stout whose ageing Mazeppa is a cross between Yevgeny Prigozhin and the leader of a chapter of the Hells Angels. Joking aside, it's a moving and dramatically crafted performance wedded to a firm baritone with plenty of heft. Rachel Nicholls' lightning-bolt soprano is well suited to the steely but ultimately vulnerable Mariya; the voice only occasionally unsteady towards the top.
John Findon offers sterling support as the hapless Andrei and Luciano Batinic brings nobility to Mariya’s father Kochubey, singing through mounting layers of blood and gore. Sara Fulgoni is fierce if a trifle squally as his wife. The only reservation is Mark Shanahan’s occasionally routine conducting of the English National Opera Orchestra; Tchaikovsky’s fervent score deserves more oomph.