Andrew Clements 

Les Troyens review – Mariinsky without the magic

Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Opera make Berlioz's magnificent opera seem routine, writes Andrew Clements
  
  

'Les Troyens'
Bland … Mariinsky Opera perform Les Troyens. Photograph: Duncan Bryceland/Rex Photograph: Duncan Bryceland/REX

Many of the productions that Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Opera have brought to Edinburgh over the last two decades have been truly memorable; sometimes, especially in the Russian repertory, they have proved to be real revelations. But the company's staging of Berlioz's epic, the highest profile operatic event at this year's festival, is in no sense revelatory, and is memorable only for managing to make the uneven magnificence of Les Troyens seem so uninvolving and routine.

Yannis Kokkos's production was first seen in St Petersburg in May, yet it already seems so tired and routine that it could be an age-old show that has been revived once too often. Kokkos's own designs commute between painterly naturalism, stylisation and something more abstract, with much use of a giant mirror, tricksy gauzes and the occasional video overlay. His costumes (a collaboration with Thibaut Welchlin) suggest Troy is a community perhaps in the Balkans today, and Carthage is somewhere prosperous in the Middle East.

It all looks bland, and Kokkos does nothing with the protagonists to fill the spaces with flesh-and-blood drama; there's never any sense of who these supposedly larger-than-life characters are, how their personal dramas fit together, or how any of them relate to the communities they rule. Even the great choral moments, normally one of the highlights of any Mariinsky show, seem generalised and rather haphazardly placed on stage.

A few powerfully sung individual performances and great orchestral playing might have provided the energy that is so conspicuously lacking in the drama. But the Mariinsky orchestra gave only occasional glimpses of the magnificently characterful band it can be, and Gergiev did not seem to be inclined to expect anything more.

The cast seems a run-of-the-mill Mariinsky one, too, with nearly all the voices struggling to project the French text; their diction is at best mediocre, at worst execrable. Mlada Khudoley's Cassandre has all the right dramatic attributes, but few of the right words; Ekaterina Semenchuk's Didon emotes impressively but hardly in a queenly way; the Enée, Sergey Semishkur is a powerful vocal presence but an empty dramatic one. The best, most touching performance comes from Ekaterina Krapivina, as Anna, Didon's sister, who brings a rare sense of humanity to the production.

• Until 30 August. Box office: 0131-473 2000. Details: Edinburgh international festival.

 

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