Mozart's early opera Il Re Pastore (The Shepherd King) has never had more than a fragile toehold in the repertoire. The Royal Opera's new staging in the Linbury Studio, directed by John Lloyd-Davies and conducted by Edward Gardner, is a brave attempt to rescue the piece from oblivion.
As a story, Il Re Pastore has little to recommend it. Alessandro appoints the shepherd Aminta as the unsuspecting king of newly conquered Sidon, but Aminta is in love with Elisa and would rather be with his beloved than rule a great city, so Alessandro relents and lets him have the girl and the crown - and that's it. It's no wonder that this thin tale did not inspire Mozart to the dramatic heights of his later operas.
But if the story is forgettable, the music is sometimes glorious. The best number is Aminta's soft-focused second-act aria, garlanded with cor anglais and solo violin melodies, and sung with melting intensity by soprano Katie van Kooten. Hers is the outstanding performance of the production, sumptuously rich in tone and as effortless in the filigree coloratura of her first act arias as in the drama of her recitatives. She is partnered by Ana James's Elisa, whose light, lyrical soprano shines in her long aria at the start of the second act, and they are supported by Gardner's insightful, energetic direction of the English Baroque Soloists.
However, the cast have to contend with the fussiness of Lloyd-Davies' stage pictures. He tries to turn this little story into a searing political commentary, casting Peter Bronder's Alessandro as a strutting fascist dictator, with a retinue of masked courtiers, and supported by Robert Murray's tortured Agenor. The production tacks an absurdly overblown interpretation on to the light-hearted finale: Aminta breaks a sword hanging above the throne, portentously symbolising the end of violence and the coming of compassionate, pastoral rule.
It's all trying too hard to make Il Re Pastore a full-scale operatic experience, something it plainly isn't. But the music's the thing, and the show is worth seeing for the strength of its central performances and the excitement of the orchestral playing.
· Until April 22. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
