On paper, Stravinsky’s one-act opera Mavra (1922) has everything, from cross-dressing to sharp repartee. At only 25 minutes, it gives four singers a chance to show off their comedy chops at top speed. You guessed it. In the theatre it feels twice as long and inert. The Paris premiere flopped. Stravinsky defended it, but it remains an oddity. The Royal Opera’s Jette Parker young artists programme comes as close to turning it into a silk purse as anyone could. This chamber version (by Paul Phillips), directed by Anthony Almeida, designed by Rosanna Vize and played by Britten Sinfonia, is paired with Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire, conducted by Michael Papadopoulos at the Linbury theatre.
Based on Pushkin, Mavra tells the tale of a poor widow and her pretty daughter, who need a new maid. The daughter, Parasha (April Koyejo-Audiger), plots with her soldier boyfriend, Vasily (Egor Zhuravskii), to get him under her roof. Vasily must become Mavra. “She” totters in wearing red heels, full frocks and long ginger tresses: not standard domestic servant wear, but looking fabulous. Sarah Pring (mother) and Idunnu Münch (neighbour) ably complete the quartet. Bright, stiff, 1960s-style dresses, mad wigs, a heap of green bin bags and a dizzying expanse of rose-covered wallpaper helped pass the time.
