Iphigénie en Tauride review – stylised staging of opera of bloodthirsty priestesses and divine intervention

Coliseum, London English National Opera’s production of Gluck’s opera has strong leads in Christine Rice, Nick Pritchard and Jacques Imbrailo. But why is it sung in French? Human sacrifice first; ask questions later. The story of Iphigénie among the Taurians, adapted from Euripid

Coliseum, London English National Opera’s production of Gluck’s opera has strong leads in Christine Rice, Nick Pritchard and Jacques Imbrailo. But why is it sung in French? Human sacrifice first; ask questions later.

The story of Iphigénie among the Taurians, adapted from Euripides by Gluck and his librettist Guillard in 1779, is being told at English National Opera for the first time. It’s sung in French – more on that later – and staged by Lyndsey Turner, whose sparky Noyes Fludde won the company an Olivier award back in 2020. Within the narrow rectangular frame of Soutra Gilmour’s set, Iphigénie is one of many identical priestesses, all dressed in rippling folds of wine-red and lit in evening tones by Tim Mitchell (lighting that on opening night grew suddenly even dimmer in King Thoas’s aria, when a glitch brought things to a brief halt).

Her job is to sacrifice to Diana any stranger who washes up on the shore, and her next victim may be her unrecognised brother Orestes. It takes divine intervention from Diana to make this all come good. At Coliseum, London, until 14 November Continue reading...