Michael Betteridge, composer and conductor, reviews Stanton St John Opera's production of Lizzie Strata: Make love – or war?

Roger Simmonds’ latest operatic offering, in collaboration with librettist and director David Willcock, is a gregarious modern retelling of Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata.

An oft-adapted work, including two other operatic renderings, it is a credit to Simmonds and Willcock that both the humorous and the sober elements are given airtime in this new work, with careful consideration of how to treat the themes of the play.

For those who are unfamiliar with the plot, in a nutshell, the women of the land deny their men of sex to force them to agree never to go to war again.

An exceptionally close translation of the original, the opera, staged on July 23, opened with a chorus of mobile phone zombies chanting a Philip Glass/John Adams-inspired choral moment with a text littered with vocabulary such as ‘amazeballs’ and ‘hashtag’. The women’s chorus, mainly made up of local community singers, was excellent, singing with clear diction and careful musicality, and full of character throughout the work.

In particular, Hannah Fraser-Mackenzie, Emily Burn and Clemmie Franks shone as the female semi-chorus performing some of Simmonds’ tightest choral work of the evening. Dawn Burns, in the title role, performed with grace and panache, whilst her confidante Clio (Angharad Watkeys) provided excellent vocal support with a deliciously buoyant and bright higher register. With the women clad in colourful t-shirts brandishing the Venus symbol, Shaun Moore’s design was perfect for this paired-down, outside production.

Simmonds’ score happily swerves through numerous styles without apology, featuring a smattering of jazz, lots of groovy Latin rhythms and nods to recent operatic greats.

The score’s eclecticism adds to the comedy and enjoyable frothiness of the narrative, as well as clearly defining some of the stronger characters in the opera.

The small band of piano, percussion, double bass and reeds was used exceptionally effectively as we veered from gloomy dark double bass and timpani, to high staccato piano and clarinet conversations. The underscore was always of interest, always supported the singers, but never distracted. Simmonds’ word setting was also impeccable so, unusually for contemporary opera, there was no need for surtitles.

Willcock is equally bold in his libretto.

Aristophanes’ original is famed for its innuendo and entertaining lack of subtly, and Willcock is faithful in this respect. However, this isn’t just public schoolboy smut. The libretto is peppered with wonderful, seemingly unlaboured poetry, including clever internal rhymes that ensure the flow of the opera: Sondheim, Porter and Gilbert would all approve. Neither does Willcock shy away from blatant portrayals and criticisms of our elected politicians, with the leading man, Boris, resembling exactly who you’d assume – blonde wig and all.

The abundance of female roles is laudable as so many operas, even new works, lack strong characters for women. However the male leads were strong too: of particular note was James Savage-Hanford’s wonderful portrayal of Ken with some really solid, but theatrical singing. Of the women, it also worth mentioning Lucia de Paiva-Kynch, in the role of Lola, who was wonderfully entertaining as a performer throughout.

At times the extremeness of the innuendo, both lyrical and theatrical, felt as though it was over-egging the pudding. However a poignant prologue and epilogue bookmarked the show, providing a stark context for the silliness.

The insistent 'happy ending' that the colourful cast sang tunefully at the audience, repeating it over and over, is an illusion. In our modern world, warfare is still the currency of governments and Simmonds and Willcock reminded us of this tonight.

While the concept of withholding sex in order to change the world might be an amusing one and make for a great operatic adventure, it is true, and has been laid out clearly to us in this new work, that we are far from achieving the peace that Lizzie, Aristophanes and so many of us, desperately want for this world.