Act of sabotage

Exactly 400 years ago, 24 February 1607, the first great opera received its première in Mantua. It’s a crucial date in the history of the arts in Western Europe, and it would have been agreeable to be able to report that Opera North, in its new production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, did it justice. And musically speaking it would not have been hopelessly wide of the mark. But what we saw was as ferocious an act of sabotage as you are likely to see in a tour of the world’s operatic stages, whatever they may be doing, and the competition for impertinent inanity is intense. Paul Steinberg’s set is an uglily lit room, with empty niches on to which some of the performers jump, and with cheap modern utility furniture. The costumes, by Doey Luethi, range from early-17th century to contemporary punk, including mixtures of the two. The singers who aren’t actually singing form the audience on stage, a badly behaved one, possibly a joke by the director Christopher Alden.