FESTIVALS are excellent for bringing obscure works back to life. An enquiring audience will respond well to such endeavours, as did Saturday's crowd for the opening night of this joint production by the Edinburgh Festival and Scottish Opera of Smet
ana's late two-act opera The Two Widows.
It was, apparently, a favourite of Richard Strauss, who would often make his visits to Prague coincide with a performance.
Smetana takes a typical tale of womanly intrigue and male buffoonery and wraps it up in a character piece that, under the direction of Scottish Opera's newly-appointed musical director Francesco Corti, has moments as bucolically stirring as the same composer's The Bartered Bride.
These are well-expressed in overtures to both acts that are loaded with Slavonic energy and colour, but more especially in one beautifully extended scene featuring Jane Irwin as the love-troubled widow Anezka in which Smetana's emotional characterisation, with Irwin's heart-tugging portrayal, is genuinely show-stopping.
Irwin is the cream of a cohesive cast that includes Kate Valentine as a vibrant Karolina (the "brighter" widow and chief protagonist), David Pomeroy as the inoffensive love object Ladislav, Nicholas Folwell in the clown role of Mumlal, and Ben Johnson and Rebecca Ryan as a token manifestation of young love among the menagerie of fun-loving villagers.
But oh dear, what a production. Given this team's history with Scottish Opera – director/designer Tobias Hoheisel and co-director Imogen Kogge were responsible for last season's mind-numbing sterilisation of Mozart's Seraglio – perhaps we should have guessed the outcome.
The recurring ruse with the mirrors – where character doubles act out the mirrored (or not) "reflection" – is not only unoriginal, but completely aimless in dramatic terms. The doe, appearing in the distant rural landscape for its figurative paean, looks more like a kangaroo. And even within the vast expanse of the gaudy green set, crowd scenes seem downright mob-like.
Subtle, imaginative stagecraft is not this production's priority. Which is a pity, as a genuine effort to restore a serviceable opera to the repertoire should not be damned as a result.
Further performances tonight and tomorrow, 7:15pm