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Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 film _Festen_ (a Danish word meaning celebration) now has an operatic treatment by the British composer Mark Anthony Turnage and his librettist Lee Hall. It’s a

harrowing spectacle. After just 1 hour 40 minutes of conventional behaviour, and occasional misbehaviour, at a family party, the audience is left pole-axed. It begins with the guests

arriving, and ends with breakfast the next morning, as if nothing much has happened. Yet I felt wrung out, and the audience thundered their applause after this world premiere. It’s the music

that does it. Largely conventional, yet hiding huge dramatic intensity, this is Turnage’s seventh opera. None of them lasts more than two hours. He knows how to achieve his effect almost

effortlessly, and in this case he had the help of a libretto from the man who wrote _Billy Elliot_. As Turnage says, “Lee [Hall] knows which words sound good when they’re sung —because he’s

written musicals”. He has invested the text with lightness despite it being an extremely dark comedy. For example, near the beginning the whole chorus is involved in speculating about what

kind of soup has just been served. Later a couple have a screaming row about a badly packed suitcase. Lightness is essential because the story is appalling: a _paterfamilias_ sexually

abusing his own children, the sort of thing that gets salacious coverage in the press, not to mention racism towards the younger daughter’s boyfriend. Yet everything seems so normal as the

family gathers for his 60th birthday party. It is a collective act of denial, and the chorus plays a vital role, as it does in Britten’s _Peter Grimes_. In fact, in the final scene when the

guests greet one another with their “Good mornings”, I was reminded very much of Britten’s opera, where the chorus is an accusing mob. Here, however, they collectively ignore and collude

with what has gone on. The use of a chorus in opera is a very powerful tool, far more so than its role in ancient Greek drama, and here is used to great effect. What with chorus, orchestra

and a very large number of soloists, this is an expensive work to put on, but the Royal Opera have accomplished it brilliantly with luxury casting that includes Gerald Finley as the

_paterfamilias_ Helge, Allan Clayton as his eldest son Christian, and heaps more very well-known singers, including John Tomlinson as Grandpa, Susan Bickley as Grandma, Stéphane Degout as

the younger son, and Natalya Romaniw as the younger daughter. The musicianship of a vast cast, chorus and orchestra was superbly directed by conductor Edward Gardner, and the production by

Richard Jones was subtly expressive of the mood throughout. It featured a device new to me at the end, where the wallpaper and small picture on the wall gradually increase in size until one

sees a deceptively happy portrait of four children, their lives only blighted by the father whose birthday they are there to celebrate. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication

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