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<\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s not very often that you hear and seen an opera in which you worry about (or care) whodunnit. Even Nicol Muhly\u2019s (I thought splendid) Marnie<\/em>, which had its world premi\u00e8re in London last year, and was derived from the suspenseful Hitchcock film, we didn\u2019t so much worry about who did what, as about Marnie\u2019s weird character. But David Sawer and Rory Mullarkey\u2019s The Skating Rink<\/em>, based on the novel by Roberto Bola\u00f1o, which has just had its world premi\u00e8re at Garsington Opera, is a genuine opera whodunnit. Though I guessed the identity of the murderer of the clapped-out opera singer, Carmen (sung and acted with utter brilliance by Susan Bickley), I was still breathlessly awaiting confirmation of my hunch until the last moments of the piece.<\/p>\n And what a piece it is. Sawer\u2019s score is full of variety and musical interest, with everything from karaoke to a proper aria or two; Mullarkey\u2019s libretto never calls attention to itself \u2013 the highest praise I can bestow upon dialogue that is both in contemporary language and has a plot to convey. The director and designer, Stewart Laing, has done wonders with the limited, but necessarily intimate Garsington stage \u2013 and no praise is too high, or even sufficient, for the movement director, Sarah Fahie. She has an enormous number of supers to manoeuvre about the stage, as well as a genuine skater, the terrific Alice Poggio. I don\u2019t know how it was done (my wife thinks the skate blades were really rollers), but she whirls about the stage executing axels, lutzes, salchows and all the other mysterious items of ice skating vocabulary.<\/p>\n The smaller than usual Garsington Opera Orchestra (that I couldn\u2019t quite see from my wonderful seats), was augmented by a Chilean charango (of the ukulele family, I believe) and a guitar, but some of the most thrilling moments were for solo harp and pizzicato strings. Garry Walker\u2019s conducting made Sawer\u2019s score come to life, with film-music-like passages of suspense and nervousness, along with some cherish-able lyric moments.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stewart Laing\u2019s ingenious sets incorporate a see-through cube of a room, which green uniformed attendants move, gliding about the stage; the central ice rink (however that is managed); and a huge Ian-Davenport-like vertically striped curtain, which covers the whole of the backstage, and constantly makes you wonder what\u2019s going on behind it.\u00a0 Malcolm Rippeth\u2019s lighting add to the enigma.<\/p>\n Mullarkey has structured the narrative, Rashamon\u00ad-<\/em>fashion, so that we see some of the same events from different viewpoints of the actors in them. I haven\u2019t read the Bola\u00f1o novel, but gather from Chris Andrews\u2019 very good programme essay, and Fiona Maddock\u2019s superb conversation with the composer and librettist (also in the programme), that the libretto is faithful to the novel in this regard.<\/p>\n
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