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The surreal, dark humour is a gift for the talents of Richard Jones, whose inspired production, designed by Miriam Buether (sets) and Nicky Gillibrand (costumes) and lit by Lucy Carter, complements and enhances the arc of dramatic tension.
Thomas Vinterberg’s taboo-busting 1998 film Festen (The Celebration) centred around a 60th birthday party at which the respected head of household is gradually revealed as a monstrous child abuser.
Yet these are affectionate hommages in the spirit of the piece – Vinterberg himself confessed to “stealing” from Bergman, Visconti and Coppola – and Turnage sews it all together with consummate skill and gratifyingly varied, colourful orchestration.
Futile perhaps to lament the lack of grittiness manifested in earlier Turnage scores such as Greek, which might have been more appropriate in Festen than many of the easy-going sonorities deployed here.
The opera’s conclusion, incidentally, has adjusted the original – I think convincingly – ensuring that the empathetic focus is on the victims, even if the perpetrator is accepted back into a community in collective denial.
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