The Stage

Elegy for Young Lovers

Published Monday 26 April 2010 at 10:26 by George Hall

The first of Henze’s two operas to librettos by WH Auden and Chester Kallman, premiered in 1961, is the latest of ENO’s collaborations with the Young Vic.

Steven Page (Gregor Mittenhofer) in Elegy For Young Lovers by English National Opera at the Young Vic Photo: Tristram Kenton

Set in an inn in the Austrian Alps, the story centres on the great poet but personal monster Gregor Mittenhofer, who mercilessly uses those around him to help produce his art, even allowing a young couple to die in a blizzard to feed him with material for the poem that becomes the opera’s title.

It’s a darkly witty commentary on art and personal morals, Henze’s score setting the wordy, well-made play of a text to music that is intricate, lucid and spiky, yet which finally lacks the big ideas that opera needs.

But it’s well worth seeing in Fiona Shaw’s crisp and detailed production, with the entire cast acting their collective socks off. Steven Page finds the role of a lifetime in Mittenhofer, whose childish ego, pandered to by his entire entourage, creates a permanent state of mayhem.

Lucy Schaufer is focused as his bullied and bullying secretary Carolina, with Robert Murray’s Toni and Kate Valentine’s Elisabeth rebelling bravely against Mittenhofer’s authority as the doomed young couple.

Jennifer Rhys-Davies steals several scenes as Hilde Mack, Mittenhofer’s elderly muse, whose tragically inspired visions cease when she regains her sanity. Stefan Blunier conducts an assured account of the complex score, and the visuals - Tom Pye’s icy sets, Lynette Wallworth’s videos and Peter Mumford’s lighting - are exceptional.