The Rape of Lucretia is a tragic tale through the ages
BENJAMIN Britten’s opera, The Rape of Lucretia, has been given a thoroughly contemporary makeover by Michael Barker-Caven. He is directing the Irish Youth Opera in association with Wexford Festival Opera in a production that opened in Wexford on Saturday and begins its run in Cork tomorrow. The opera is set in a television studio with a cast of eight — including a man and a woman representing the male and female choruses.
“The two chorus members become news presenters on an evangelical news programme where news and religion are mixed,” says Barker-Caven. He says the opera has much resonance for today. “In a lot of international news, media, news desks and the Bible have somehow become intertwined in various locations around the world. What is the influence of that?”
