The Rape of Lucretia
Benjamin Britten - International Opera Academy

The students of the International Opera Academy perform Benjamin Britten's chamber opera about sexual violence and abuse of power.
"Now no sea is deep enough to drown my shame," Lucretia voices her despair after her rape by the tyrannical Roman King Sextus Tarquinius. The married Lucretia, known for her faithfulness, refuses to continue living with the trauma of her assault, even if the tyrant is banished and a new regime is installed. Benjamin Britten wrote his stylised chamber opera The Rape of Lucretia during the Second World War, in a period that was marked not only by the horrors of war but also by a dramatic increase in crimes and sexual violence. Director Carlos Wagner takes that historical context as a starting point for a powerful new version of the opera with the young singers of the International Opera Academy. Like the composer, he reads the original ancient story as an allegory about the inability to gain power and to subjugate, and as a case study in the political exploitation of a crime, regardless of the fate of the victim.
The creators
Benjamin Britten
Composition
Ronald Duncan
Libretto
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Filip Rathé
Conductor
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Carlos Wagner
Direction
Alejandro Andujar
Scenography and costume design
Studenten van de International Opera Academy
Singer
SPECTRA
Orchestra