BWW Reviews: THE SIEGE OF CALAIS, Hackney Empire, March 7 2015

It's 1347 and the citizens of Calais are besieged by the English, who are in no mood to negotiate. The city's leader, Eustachio, knows that Calais' pride will ensure that it goes down fighting, but he looks, desperately, for a way to save as many of his countrymen as he can from slaughter - at almost any price. A meeting is called and an offer made - six hostages to be executed, without honour, shamefully, ruthlessly.

Donizetti's The Siege of Calais (part of an ETO season at the Hackney Empire and on tour) is a reminder that the horrors of Isis and Boko Haram vary only in their use of technology from methods used for thousands of years - the depravity of mankind appears as deeply rooted as its capacity for love. Salvatore Cammarano's libretto aches with loss (of hope, of family, of pride and, ultimately, of life itself) as the words and music return to the fate of those overpowered by men with weapons and the will, indeed the desire, to use them.

The key relationship in the story is the triangle linking Eustachio, his son Aurelio and his wife Eleonora - each explores the options available to them and each option's impact on the other two, but their fates are sealed by their love for their city and its people, which overcomes even their love for each other. These are themes that catch hold as much today as in 1836, when the opera was first performed in Naples.

Craig Smith's Eustachio is as stiff-backed in stature as he is stiff-upper-lipped in nature: an old man, but one possessing the wisdom of age and the judgement of how and when to use it. Catherine Carby in her trouser role as Aurelio is noble and brave, as devoted to his wife (Paula Sides) and child as he is to his city. Impressive too is Grant Doyle as the English King Edward III whose ruthless steel is on show early in this two act version, with his cold-blooded, self-satisfied aria that seals Calais' fate L'avvenir per me fia tutto, Un trionfo, una vittoria / "Every obstacle to my glory, Is overcome at last!".

The set - looking like something out of American Sniper or the early scenes of The Terminator - has a grim, austere beauty in its broken concrete greyness and the costumes show how these people, drinking brackish water from buckets now, were once proud citizens of a properous city, now smashed into ever smaller pieces. Though the singing and music (under conductor Jeremy Silver) is as beautifully rendered as we have come to expect from this company, director James Conway keeps his cast largely static, perhaps to reflect the nature of a siege. That is, of course, until the six face their fate - pour encourager les autres.

To post a comment, you must register and login.