Britten: The Rape of Lucretia - Glyndebourne Opera (2015) [Blu-ray]

Leo Hussain conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in this production of Britten's opera, recorded in October 2015 at Glyndebourne Opera House. Christine Rice stars as the eponymous character with the rest of the cast including Allan Clayton, Kate Royal and Duncan Rock.

Seventy years after its Glyndebourne world premiere, Benjamin Britten’s first chamber opera is welcomed home with ‘a performance of enthralling emotional power and physical beauty’ gifted with ‘piercingly intelligent, immaculately realised staging and superb singing, acting and playing’ led by ‘Fiona Shaw’s supremely nuanced direction’ and underpinned by ‘febrile playing’ from members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (The Telegraph ★★★★★). The production eloquently and tastefully tackles the difficult subject, which is lent emotional weight by ‘Christine Rice’s grandly sung Lucretia, noble in tone yet tragically vulnerable’, along with baritone Duncan Rock’s ‘forthright’ Tarquinius and the ‘smooth bass’ of Matthew Rose as the caring Collatinus (The Guardian ★★★★)