JADAR

★★★★☆

Opera North’s brand-new, ecologically-focused, English-language opera Masque of Might, inspired by a collaboration of Purcell’s pieces, is an experimental, unique and engaging piece of theatre. A jukebox opera which “recycles” the music of Purcell.

With its infusion of modern climate crisis debates and the baroque, with its gorgeously made costumes and the reminiscent melancholy of the harpsichord, Masque creates its own stance on the opera genre and climate-centred theatre shows.

Very rarely have I felt genuinely engaged with an ecological show’s messaging, with them often either being jumbled with other themes or feeling overly preachy about today’s society. However, Masque offered a distant enough premise in its dystopian world yet still brought home the realities of environmental destruction.

Its story is relatively simple yet sweet. A tyrannical leader named Diktat is born and upheaves all natural order and governmental opposition, murdering potential ‘terrorists’, ‘rebels’ and earth-sympathetic folk, whilst revelling in his omnipotence before the tides turn and both nature and the masses start to fight back against his oppression.

Diktat is, by every means, an exaggerated stereotypical dictator with a splendour of medallions, an impending voice, a knack for cruelty, and an almost comedically violent side perfectly displayed when he barrows onto the stage decorated proudly by his collection of missile launchers. 

The show was brought to life by a gorgeous variety of instruments that reflected the raw emotions of grieving characters, nature in despair, the cacophony of war, or the magic and excitement of nature’s reemergence.

Overall, the music often reflected the grandeur or tyranny of Diktat’s reign and the human, animal and vegetal suffering he caused, powerfully enhanced by images of burning and logged forests that highlight the real impact of human greed on our environment. Awe-inspiring vocal performances further hammered these messages home, alongside beautiful segments set in the stars.

While I’ve never been a big fan of digital sets, this was one of the few times that I felt screens were used efficiently as the imagery displayed places and emotions in ways a physical set would likely not have achieved.

The opera did, however, have a lot of physical set-pieces and symbolic props, from broken down caravans to a thrown of chairs, cardboard animals, gigantic prams or costumes that were all second-hand or re-used fabrics – a collage of materials reflecting the show’s collage of messages and bridging the gap between the baroque style and humanity’s current over-consumption and environmental destruction.

Meanwhile, other costumes used wings, animal heads and masks and were brought to life by animalistic and stunning interpretative dancing, along with a brilliant mini-Diktat puppet towards the final act.

Another element I particularly enjoyed was the inclusion of comedic moments in an otherwise largely harrowing story. Much like several Shakespearian plays, Masque brings in clown (albeit literal clown) characters which would make light of the birth of Diktat and his later reign of genocide and destruction. These slapstick and exaggerative moments, mixed with the poignant moments of grief felt by other characters for nature and fellow man, made the show all the more endearing, particularly as we see tree people cut down tragically (despite being by cardboard chainsaws!).

My only minor peeve was that some segments felt occasionally long-winded (more likely a result of the music’s origins and links to Purcell), with lots of repetitions that sometimes pulled a scene out for longer than necessary. This meant that it felt like certain parts were over but continued a little longer than expected. 

Overall, the show was a fantastic mixture of modern and baroque art, embellished by Purcell’s music and light-hearted moments that helped prevent the show’s message about environmental destruction feel more poignant than preachy.

Opera North wrapped up its Green Season at The Lowry (Lyric Theatre) on November 18. Check out our review of Verdi’s Falstaff and await our review of Puccini’s La rondine!

Photo: James Glossop