With its anachronistic Christian overtones and almost omnipresent narrators, The Rape of Lucretia poses its share of tricky staging challenges. But a new production by the Aspen Opera Theater Center, a pre-professional training program at the Aspen Music Festival, adroitly integrated the 1946 opera's potentially conflicting components and dug to the emotional core of this grim and moving tale (seen July 30). 

Contemporary stage directors often want to update this story, a tendency that can run afoul of the libretto's abundant references to its ancient setting. Edward Berkeley, who heads the Opera Theater Center, cleverly got around this problem by bridging past and present. The set pieces and costumes for the principal action convey the Roman era. But they were inserted into unchanging stage scenery, designed by John Kasarda to suggest a concentration camp, with plain wooden columns, barbed wire and steel lights. Furthering the effect, the production's few non-singing extras wore the gray, shabby costumes of camp inmates. The two narrators were clad in the fatigues of American soldiers, a smart stroke that took them out of the continuity of the action and reinforced their position as outsiders. While the intersection of time periods was jarring at times, it generally succeeded in achieving Berkeley's goal of conveying the never-ceasing relevance of this historic event turned legend. 

British conductor Jane Glover, making her second visit to the festival, deserved much of the credit for the offering's overall power. She drew the best from the young singers and the thirteen surprisingly strong student musicians from Aspen's Contemporary Ensemble who made up the pit orchestra, keeping the pacing taut and giving full voice to the score's edgy evocativeness. 

As might be expected with still-maturing singers, the quality of the performances varied. Some still have areas of their technique that need work. Lauren Snouffer, for example, a promising, bright-voiced soprano who played Lucia, struggled at times with wobbly high notes. Mezzo-soprano Heather Jewson showed herself to be a technically solid singer as Lucretia, but she did not have the stage presence or acting prowess to bring the role alive or put a memorable stamp on it. 

The clear stand-out was baritone David Krohn, who possesses a forceful, well-developed voice. He convincingly conveyed Prince Tarquinius's obsessive intensity and menace. Also deserving praise were soprano Carla Janzen and tenor John Andrew McCullough as the female and male choruses – the two narrators. Both invested their words with weight and feeling and effectively drew in the listener, especially Janzen, with her measured, affecting style. The two voices fit well together, assuring that their duets were among the production's highlights.  

KYLE MacMILLAN