Reviews

Opera: The Invader

Put a gifted nature poet with a composer who has a reputation for minimalism and what do you get? In the case of Mark Roper and Eric Sweeney, you get a well-crafted, chamber opera in a gothic horror vein that entertains more than it disturbs. The Invader premiered at the Theatre Royal on Friday night as part of the Waterford 1100 celebrations.

For his first libretto, Roper adapted Euripides’ The Bacchae, which has the usual ingredients of a meaty plot, seduction, violence, a hint of incest and lamentation. Arranged in eight scenes spanning 90 minutes, the action moves between the ‘city’ stronghold of Rex (Cork baritone Joe Corbett) and the forest, where the spirit Dion (tenor Telman Guzevsky) presides over the Bacchanalian revelries of wild women, played by a chorus of seven sopranos.