![]() Tarquinius reveals his obsession with Lucretia, claiming that she is "as chaste as she is beautiful" and declaring that he will "prove Lucretia chaste." Junius leaves him with an admonition that he will not dare. Satisfied with his work he retires to bed. When Tarquinius joins them and resumes his taunting of Junius, Collatinus reproves him and makes peace between the two. Male Chorus comments, remarking how lucky Collatinus is to have chosen a virtuous wife.Ĭollatinus comes out and reproaches Junius for venting his rage against his own wife in bitterness against Lucretia and, and Junius apologises. Junius bursts out of the tent, unable to bear the comparison between Lucretia and his wife. Collatinus calms them and Tarquinius proposes a toast to the chaste Lucretia. Tarquinius taunts Junius with the faithlessness of his wife and they quarrel acrimoniously. ![]() Collatinus tells them they were foolish to go and the others comment that he has no need to worry since his wife Lucretia was the only one found virtuously at home. They discuss the events of the previous night when some of generals had ridden back to Rome to check up on their wives and found most of them unfaithful, including the wife of Junius. His son Tarquinius Sextus leads a Roman army against the Greeks, to distract attention from conditions in Rome, "and treats the proud city as if it were his whore."Ī curtain rises to reveal the army camp outside Rome with the generals' tent where Collatinus, Junius and Tarquinius are drinking. They explain the events against which the action of the opera takes place.īy murder and treachery, the Etruscan Tarquinius Superbus has become King of Rome and rules in a reign of terror. However, Lucretia and Tarquinius are flesh-and-blood characters driven by real human emotions and desires (Lucretia’s music is surely some of Britten’s most sheerly beautiful) and the resulting amalgam is an opera of great musico-dramatic power and expressive richness.Male and Female Chorus are seated on either side of the stage, reading from books. With the roles of the Male and Female Chorus, who comment on the action ‘out of time’ (as in Greek tragedy) and the use of solo piano accompaniment to accompany recitative passages, Lucretia achieves a certain ‘classical’ poise and detachment. There is, however, no loss of colour and atmosphere – indeed the pared-down textures produced an intensification of Britten’s operatic vision which was to serve him further in Albert Herring and The Turn of the Screw. His first work in the new medium was The Rape of Lucretia, first performed just over a year after Peter Grimes, in 1946. It was a combination of economic realities and aesthetic preferences that encouraged Britten to develop the concept of chamber opera, employing a small cast without chorus and an orchestra of just thirteen players. The Male and Female Chorus attempt to come to terms with these events in a Christian context. Her death provides the impetus for the Romans to throw out the Tarquins. ![]() Collatinus arrives with Junius to hear the news, and despite his at least partial understanding of Lucretia's shame it is too painful for her to bear, and she stabs herself. The following morning her late appearance in a distressed, broken state is only slowly understood by her nurse Bianca and maid Lucia, and her husband is sent for. Tarquinius's purpose, however, is made clear when he wakes her and forces himself upon her before leaving her house. There his arrival at her house produces consternation, but hospitality forces Lucretia to offer him a room for the night, despite her misgivings and those of her servants. Urged on by the malicious Junius, Tarquinius decides to prove Lucretia chaste by attempting her virtue himself, and rides off to Rome. Of the married men (Tarquinius goes to brothels) only Collatinus can boast a wife, Lucretia, who was discovered sleeping alone in her husband's absence. They discuss an earlier, unfortunate bet, in which the constancy of various Roman wives was tried and found wanting. At a military camp outside the city his son, the prince Tarquinius Sextus, is drinking with two generals, Collatinus and Junius. The action is set in and around Rome immediately before the end of the reign of the Etruscan king Tarquinius Superbus in 510 BC. ![]() The Male and Female Chorus describe the historical background to the story, and reveal their view of events to be that of a later, Christian era. ![]()
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