Die Ägyptische Helena, October 2021

Fulham Opera (now Regent’s Opera)

The critically acclaimed UK Premiere of the revised 1933 version of Strauss’ Die Ägyptische Helena. Performed at Fulham Opera’s home, St John’s Church in Fulham with a brand new orchestral arrangement of the “Wiener Fassung” of the opera. Extensive use of shadowplay and other lighting effects were used to bring this extraordinary piece to life, in a new production which referenced both the period in which the piece is set and the one in which it was written. Set and costumes designed by Alexander McPherson. Lighting Design: Michele Broomhead. Production photos by Matthew Coughlan. Poster design by Adam Stothard.

You can read my programme notes for the production here (many people enjoyed these!), and my synopsis of the famously complicated story is here.

Helena: Justine Viani

Menelas: Brian Smith Walters

Aithra: Luci Briginshaw

Altair: Oliver Gibbs / Andrew Mayor

Da-ud: Dominic J. Walsh

The Omniscient Seashell: Ingeborg Børch / Liza Graham

Maidservants: Christine Buras / Natasha Elliott

Conductor: Benjamin Woodward

Reviews:

Opera Now - Robert Thicknesse (5 stars)

★★★★★

“a blinding achievement… to put on this blast of extremism, and do it so well

There is little point doing this sort of thing by half measures, and by God, Fulham Opera didn’t. Director Guido Martin-Brandis managed to tell the bizarre tale clearly with next to nothing in the way of scenery or props. I won’t forget this in a hurry.”

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Opera Today / Planethugill - Robert Hugill (4.5 stars)

“Imaginative, daring, enterprising: Fulham Opera’s production of Richard Strauss’s Die ägyptische Helena.

Only the work's second UK staging, Fulham Opera take on Strauss and Hofmannsthal's impossible opera and make it work brilliantly

Guido Martin-Brandis' production took all this admirably seriously, there was no irony and no attempt to add metaphysics or symbolism to the production. What Martin-Brandis did was tell the story with remarkable clarity, a superbly admirable characteristic in a staging of such a rare opera with a confused plot. He and designer Alexander McPherson made imaginative use of the limited staging area provided by St John's, complete with immovable altar. So we had lots of billowing fabric, amazing costumes with some very 1930s period style, including the imaginative incarnation of the Omniscient Mussel (played with wry humour by Ingeborg Borch) as a sort of radio star. 

The result was wonderfully engaging, and in the performances of the two principals, Brian Smith Walters as Menelas and Justine Viani as Helena, completely riveting. It was superbly performed all round

This was an amazing enterprise, daring and imaginative, the company brought Strauss and Hofmannsthal's opera to life. If there were limitations, then those were almost entirely due to the work's creators. In performance, everyone thrilled by their sympathy with the music and the way they brought the complex dramaturgy to life. Die ägyptische Helena still deserves a full-scale London production, but until then Fulham Opera's performance was a superb way to get to know this rare work.”

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The Times - Geoff Brown (four stars)

★★★★

“Fulham Opera scores with rare Strauss.

For the libretto’s pictorial demands, from furious shipwreck to singing seashell, Guido Martin-Brandis’s staging, Alexander McPherson’s designs and Mitch Broomhead’s lighting conjure more magic than you might imagine.

You have to be cheered by Fulham Opera’s gusto in bucking all problems, all constraints, and bringing Strauss’s black sheep back to life.”

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Boulezian / Seen and Heard International - Mark Berry

"A splendid evening from Fulham Opera, making an excellent case for the bizarrely, well-nigh criminally neglected Die Ägyptische Helena.

With resourceful staging, exemplary in its narrative clarity, from Guido Martin-Brandis and the rest of his production team, that sense of belonging to the greater Straussian corpus was stronger than ever. The space of St John’s, Fulham and its altar too were used to frame a production, whose detailed Personenregie and costumed suggestiveness — essentially, antiquity mediated by 1920s exoticism and its new technologies — permitted one to draw one’s own conclusions without abdication of its own responsibility. The business of potions, inevitably leading one to think of Tristan parody was handled with commendable directness and clarity, enhancing rather than detracting from Hofmannsthal’s heavy, post-Frau ohne Schatten symbolism.”

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The Arts Desk - David Nice

"Mythological mess impressively handled - Ambitious company works wonders on Richard Strauss's most problematic opera

Did they pull it off? Amazingly, yes.

The opening scene immediately draws you in to an evening that is always compelling, whatever the longueurs of the score.

What an achievement. Go and see it, bearing in mind the problems and challenges, and you’ll not forget the experience.”

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Tim Ashley - Opera Critic at The Guardian

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Classical Source - Peter Reed

"This new staging from Fulham Opera is quite something for a company that, under Ben Woodward’s guidance, has never been short of ambition.

Most importantly, Martin-Brandis has made way for the opera’s layers of myth, symbol and psycho-analysis – the symbolism is exhausting – so that you get the subliminal gist of Menelaus’s and Helena’s shaky grip on the reality of their relationship via hallucinations brought about by rage, desire for revenge and, simply, desire. It is marriage counselling and self-examination on an epic, even Homeric scale.

This Fulham Opera staging made one think about interpretations that would keep directors employed forever, which is no mean achievement.”

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Opera Magazine - Yehuda Shapiro

“Directing, Guido Martin-Brandis worked with the designer Alexander McPherson, and lighting designer Mitch Broomhead to conjure pagan glamour and magical caprice in the environs of a 19th century church.

Martin-Brandis, who achieved laudible clarity in the storytelling, was completely justified in respecting Hofmannsthal.”

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Harmony (Magazine of the Music Club of London) - Katie Barnes

“Guido Martin-Brandis’s production treated the opera with respect, and by playing the story (mostly) straight, he demonstrated how it was written as a parable of the trauma of soldiers returning from World War I. The erudite and very helpful programme essay explained the background to the piece's writing and composition.

This was one of Fulham Opera's most polished and spectacular productions yet. Alexander McPherson's designs, simple and hugely effective, made the piece a miracle of light and colour. The use of fabrics was masterly. Pleated cloaks in shimmering gold and elegant gilded masks vied with rich silks, velvets and brocades, intricate carpets and light, floating gauzes. The props, even when viewed at such close quarters, looked simply amazing. Visually, the production evoked both the classical era, with a suitably Eastern feel, and the time of its composition. The palace of the island sorceress Aithra, lover of Poseidon, was dominated by a shell-shaped cutout which suggested the front of an art-deco radio, and her servants wore demure black cocktail dresses, with the enchantress seductive in black harem pants and bolero. In a brilliant stroke of production, whenever someone touched a switch at the side of the cutout the Muschel, who was seated at the side of the stage, gorgeously attired as a nightclub singer (how I envied that frock), suddenly came to life and sang into a microphone. She was the voice of the radio. Menelas wore a uniform suggesting a World War I general, with Helena in a dazzling white gown which had both a classical and a 'twenties feel, later topped by a shimmering blue robe which shifted and sparkled like sea foam. The desert prince Altair and his hapless son Da-ud wore rich brocades, while the disguised Aithra and her maids gleamed in gold, and Helena’s long-lost daughter Hermione shimmered like something from another world”