Mazeppa, Grange Park Opera

***

Hold on tight, this is quite a ride. This is, to use a cliché, no picnic, despite the long supper interval at this Surrey opera festival. Rather, Grange Park Opera served up a gruesome feast of brutality and betrayal, with lashes of blazing vocal power, and theatrical ferocity.

Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa (1883) is based on Alexander Pushkin’s narrative poem Poltava, which drew on the historical figure of Ivan Mazeppa, a Cossack hetman of Ukraine. Set in the early 18th century during the Great Northern War, the opera follows Mazeppa’s political betrayal of Tsar Peter I by allying with Sweden, culminating in the 1709 Battle of Poltava — a decisive Russian victory that reshaped the European balance of power. It is, of course, here portrayed as an earlier attempt by Ukrainian “hero” to break the Russian yolk, and a large red Z dominates. It is in the name Mazeppa but must stand for Zelensky, one can only assume.

But operas are not only about great historical drama. They need a human scale. Well, sort of. At the heart of the opera is a twisted love triangle. Mazeppa is infatuated with his much younger goddaughter, Mariya. When her father, Kochubey, objects to the match, it turns out the infatuation is mutual. Mazeppa rides off into the sunset, here on a motorbike, with Mariya more than thrilled with the ride. We might not have the When Harry Met Sally restaurant moment, but we certainly had a shriek of pleasure.

Kochubey tries to work against Mazeppa but ends up arrested and in a torture chamber. The audience still seemed to manage to enjoy their picnics on the lawns, despite the interval following Kochubey have an eye gouged out and his close companion Iskra waterboarded and then teeth pulled out with pliers. Post interval they were greeted with the two men executed by electric shock. That shock relieves Mariya of her senses (if she ever had any). We may also be supposed to understand she also loses the baby she is carrying.

You can always be assured David Pountney will give you a staging to remember. Here it not only makes you sit up and watch (as well as squirm rather a lot). Here his theatricality is full throttle, the sex is obvious and his interpretive skill stark, bold and intelligent. This Mazeppa is a dramatically bracing and vocally arresting take on one of Tchaikovsky’s most savage works — a production that is not always comfortable to watch, but frequently thrilling to hear.

Mazeppa is hardly Tchaikovsky’s best-known or most often performed opera — and for good reason. The plot is bleak, the characters morally murky, and the action peppered with torture, execution, and madness. Yet in the right hands it offers a showcase for singers of courage and power. Pountney’s team rises to that challenge, delivering a performance that brims with commitment. Pountney adds flashes of comic zaniness in the form of a witty and visual pun filled roaring motorbike scene.

While Mazeppa may have been seen as a traitor to Russia, he is now of course seen as a Ukrainian patriot seeking independence from Moscow. That context lends Mazeppa uncomfortable relevance today. Pountney makes the most of it, setting the opera in a recognisably modern war zone, complete with jet fighters, radioactive waste barrels, and brutal methods of execution. The imagery is grim and unrelenting: a torture chamber with saws and pliers; gas-masked soldiers emerging from coffins; and Mariya, Mazeppa’s young lover, clutching a towel as a substitute for her dead child. It turns out to be filled with dust.

Andreas Jankowitsch and Luciano Batinić

It’s the voices, though, that sear most deeply. David Stout’s Mazeppa as a coke-snorting biker-warlord — half tyrant, half madman — and his baritone is as commanding as his swagger. The rare moments of introspection he’s afforded are beautifully handled: Stout sings with finesse as well as ferocity, anchoring the opera with a central performance of real depth.

As Mariya, Rachel Nicholls gives a fearlessly committed portrayal of a woman unravelled. From lovestruck rock-chick to traumatised shadow, she charts the character’s descent with raw intensity, with her final lullaby — sung over the body of her slain childhood friend Andrei — was delivered with an exquisite tenderness that momentarily cut through the horror. She has a strong, large voice that is always controlled and alluring.

Luciano Batinić is the evening’s vocal revelation as Kochubey, Mariya’s father and Mazeppa’s political victim. His dark, expressive bass conveys grief, rage, and doomed dignity. His scenes with Sara Fulgoni — electric as his furious wife Lyubov — crackle with dramatic tension. Fulgoni’s mezzo is as commanding as ever, her stage presence impossible to ignore.

Making a fine Grange Park debut, John Findon lends the role of Andrei, Mariya’s spurned suitor, a touching sincerity. His heroic tenor rings out with tireless energy, making his fate all the more tragic. As Iskra, Kochubey’s loyal friend, Sam Utley gives a sharply focused performance, particularly in the gut-wrenching torture scenes.

The Grange Park Opera Chorus excels — whether as Cossack courtiers, battle-weary soldiers or spectral figures in the night, their collective sound is rich, controlled and full of emotional weight. The dancers were fabulous in Lynne Hockney’s choreography.

Mark Shanahan draws an incisive performance from the English National Opera Orchestra. The curtain-down overture sizzled with urgency, while the orchestral interludes — notably the Gopak and the grimly choreographed Poltava sequence — had visceral punch. The latter features a danse macabre of gas-masked revenants that, grotesque though it is, feels theatrically justified in this world of death and decay.
By the final curtain, Pountney’s staging has offered little in the way of light — but it has thrown this troubling, timely opera into stark relief. Mazeppa is a tale of betrayal and political violence, told here with unflinching force and elevated by a superb cast.

Forget the cucumber sandwiches and fizz. A stiff vodka might be in order — were it not for the need to drive home from the strangely contrasting leafy sanctuary of the West Horsley estate.

Until July 6

https://grangeparkopera.co.uk/whats-on/mazeppa-2

Main image: David Stout and Rachel Nichols

Images by Marc Brenner

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