The films that win the Oscars tend to be films that are respectful of convention. The award-granting establishment mostly likes its successes to conform. And you can take the recent Olivier Award for Mark-Anthony Turnage's The Silver Tassie as a token of the fact that, however contemporary the musical idiom, operatic conventions have been well-observed by the composer and his librettist, Amanda Holden.
Opera Ireland's new production, directed by Patrick Mason with designs by Joe Vanek, is altogether sparer than last year's premiere from English National Opera in London. The grey box set, its walls soaking up symbolic blood, strikes a sombre note that hardly needs the reinforcement of the shower of fluttering red petals that are released as the soldiers trek back to war at the end of act two.
Mason's fondness for that extra visionary inch - the explicitness of the Croucher's (Gerard O'Connor) bloody crown of thorns, the surpliced choirboys revealed radiant beyond the war-weary troops - sometimes seems just that bit too insistent. But after the fragmentation of the opening act and the choral horror of the second, the opera picks up, and Mason tracks well the multiple tragic transformations Harry faces from his hospital ward, and his inevitable confrontations with those who have gained as he has lost.
Sam McElroy's Harry, the sporting hero crippled in battle, grows in depth as his situation darkens. The role sounds both comfortable and hefty, a combination that surely makes it rewarding to sing. The other persuasive transformation is of the mindlessly violent, wife-threatening Teddy (Jeremy Huw Williams) into a sightless dependent, meekly accepting the turnaround which leaves the whiphand with his once put-upon wife (Franzita Whelan). Nyle Wolfe is somewhat reticent as Barney, the best friend who ends up with Harry's girl, Jessie, played by a similarly subdued Geraldine Cassidy. Andreas Jaeggi and Deirdre Cooling-Nolan are solid as Harry's parents. Emer McGilloway's Susie is more convincing as the religious obsessive of act one than in the flirtations of act three, in which Declan Kelly's Dr Maxwell is unaccountably camp. David Jones conducts the RTE Concert Orchestra with vivid animation, the style forward and sometimes flat in texture, but rarely lacking in impact. Not all of the solo playing on the opening night was as secure in this demanding score as it will surely become later in the run.
Further performances of The Silver Tassie are on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Booking and information on 01-453-5519.
