The Almeida festival premiered John Casken's first opera, Golem, in 1989. Its born-again counterpart, Almeida Opera, now shares the credit for Golem's successor. God's Liar is a co-production with La Monnaie in Brussels, where Keith Warner's elegant staging will transfer in October.
As well as the fine stagecraft, there's a lot to admire in this adaptation of Tolstoy's short story, Father Sergius. An imperial officer in 19th-century St Petersburg becomes a hermit after discovering his fiancée is the tsar's mistress, but is unable to escape the temptations of the flesh and ends his life as a beggar, wracked with guilt at betraying his faith.
Emma Warner's admirably economical libretto provides the bleak story with a 20th-century counterpoint: a young academic, Stephen, is researching the writings of Father Sergius, but betrays his high-minded principles and allows his work to be traduced in a Hollywood film. And then it's downhill all the way.
The dramatic shaping is thoughtfully cogent: the twin stories mesh in the final scenes without too much contrivance, and assigning all the main females roles to one soprano (the convincingly versatile Anne Bolstad) turns the work into a three-hander. Omar Ebrahim is suitably self-flagellating as Sergius, and Jeffrey Lentz suitably precious as Stephen, while a chorus of six fill the subsidiary roles and comment on the action.
Casken's score (well conducted by Ronald Zollman) is expertly made, full of telling instrumental details, and idiomatically and distinctively written for the voices. But - and it's a big but - it fails, as I suspect any composer's music would, to make either of the main characters live in a way that generates sympathy for their twinned predicaments. Watching these two self- pitying men tear themselves apart through guilt is an irritating experience, and there seems to be a current of profound misogyny running through the whole work. Women are presented as the source of every problem: Sergius can't resist them; Stephen's female agent persuades him to sell the film rights of his researches; and the movie's leading lady destroys his self-belief. Without them, men could have a blissfully simple time, concentrating on the higher things in life such as religion and scholarship. It's an analysis of human relationships that is more repellent than convincing.
Further performance on Saturday. Box office: 020 7359 4404
