Nothing Short of a Masterpiece

FRANCES FORBES-CARBINES finds Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera 'Festen' far from easy viewing

Festen (The Celebration) at the Royal Opera House in London was, without hyperbole, magnificent. Acclaimed contemporary English composer Mark-Anthony Turnage (Anna Nicole, Coraline) and librettist Lee Hall (Billy Elliott) came together with director Richard Jones (La bohème, Samson et Dalila) to adapt Oscar-winning filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg's (The Hunt, Another Round) 1998 Danish film, and they have truly produced a triumph. It's far from easy viewing, however. Turnage said of producing an opera from such traumatic film material content that he made the music quite lyrical so as to offset the pathos of the libretto: had he made the decision to write music that was angst-filled 'then that would have been hopeless'.

A scene from Mark-Anthony Turnage's 2025 opera Festen at Covent Garden.
Photo © 2025 Marc Brenner

Musically, Festen is nothing short of a masterpiece. Former director of the Association of British Orchestras and current arts consultant Sir Mark Pemberton told me:

At a time of cuts in public funding, it was a bold move for the Royal Opera to commit to including a new production this season. But it's an investment that has definitely paid off. Not only has Festen achieved critical success, but it's brought the punters in too. And crucially, the demographic of the audience is younger and more diverse. It's obvious why. Festen has name-recognition from the original film, but more importantly it is the best new opera of recent years. So good, in fact, that I went twice! Combining the emotional heft of the drama with a lyrical and powerful score, it's proof that contemporary opera is not the preserve of an elite, but a gateway into the artform for a wider audience.

I was particularly delighted with how the Royal Opera House treated the whole of the auditorium as though it were part of the stage: each chair had on it a gilded invitation to the sixtieth birthday party of one of the main characters, with salutations written in Danish, and in the middle during the conga scene at the party, a section of the ceiling opened to let colourful streamers unwind down gracefully into the reaching hands of the audience.

Gerald Finley as Helge (centre) in Festen at Covent Garden.
Photo © 2025 Marc Brenner

The appearances of the ghost of Linda, sister to Helena, Christian and Michael, who, we learn, committed suicide in the very hotel in which the party takes place - it is owned by businessman and birthday boy Helge - are very frightening: with aesthetics that will remind avid filmgoers of The Ring, Linda hones into view from within the seats of sofas and out of bath tubs, with tangled wet hair, a clinging white nightdress and deathly pallor. She was performed terrifyingly by British-Spanish mezzo soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons, who achieved a really eerie sense of foreboding as she sang, through glassy-eyed stares and loose, doll-like poise.

The son of the family, Christian, sung magnificently by British tenor Allan Clayton, opens and closes the opera, standing alone at the showy hotel reception.

Birthday boy Helge is sung by Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley, suffused with leeriness and manipulative zeal. A wily villain, he coerces his guests into following his own narrative to suit him: his temper flares up at times and his disdain and indeed, sexual predation, for his own children becomes apparent as the opera progresses.

The funniest scene by far is during the night of the party: brothers Christian and Michael spar with each other, issuing expletives and trading blows, while in the foreground the grandmother of the family sings a traditional Danish song, the kind of whimsical stuff of folklore about ancient woods carrying our prayers: the juxtaposition between the twee song and the blazing row that goes on behind it is very amusing indeed.

Such humorous scenes are very welcome when next to scenes of a dark and uneasy nature. The scene in which the assembled partygoers gaily sing a racist song to the only black character in the room, Gbatokai, the boyfriend of Helena, performed with great sensitivity and warmth by British baritone Peter Brathwaite who was in very good voice, makes for very uncomfortable viewing. Stop singing that, you feel yourself silently urging the characters, for the love of God, stop. What a nasty bunch to sing so. The racism is not restricted to that one song: Michael asks Gbatokai on the latter's arrival if he is there to 'play jazz', understanding that Gbatokai's suitcase holds a cornet.

Everyone left at the end of the night looking as though they'd been guests at the sixtieth birthday party itself: a little careworn and pensive. We filed out past the streamers that had unwound down from the ceiling and discarded gilded party invitations, our faces drawn out like characters in Edvard Munch paintings, our hearts in our shoes.

English mezzo Rosie Aldridge as Else (left),
Stéphane Degout as Michael (top), who has just
physically attacked Gerald Finley as Helge (below)
and two members of the cast in the kitchen
near the end of Festen at Covent Garden.
Photo © 2025 Marc Brenner

What an opera. What a performance. Bravi tutti.

The reviewed performance took place on 22 February 2025. Edward Gardner conducted the Royal Opera Chorus and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, leader Magnus Johnston. Sets are by Miriam Buether, costumes by Nicky Gillibrand, lighting by Lucy Carter and the movement director is Lucy Burge. The photos were taken on 10 February 2025. There is one further performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Festen at the Royal Opera in London, UK on Thursday 27 February 2025 at 7.30pm. Further information at rbo.org.uk

There are more articles here about Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Gerald Finley, operatic music, vocal music, choral music, orchestral music, jazz, Canada, Denmark, France, Spain, Covent Garden, London, UK, Ukraine, Wales, 21st century, contemporary classical music, and you can read our latest concert reviews here.

The background image on this page has been derived from a 2019 photo by Steffen Muldbjerg of Møllestien in Aarhus, Denmark.

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