●●●●○

Billed as Ireland’s first electronic opera, Heresy is an episodic account of the life of Giordano Bruno, sixteenth-century philosopher and theologian. Burned at the stake by the Roman Inquisition in 1600, the Dominican friar courted controversy and intrigue across sixteenth-century Europe as he repeatedly fled persecution for unpopular theories concerning Catholic doctrine. It is the first opera by Irish composer Roger Doyle, something akin to a founding father within this country’s history of experimental/electronic music.

Choosing to largely depict Bruno’s interactions with European royalty and his protracted demise, interspersed with diversions into his ridiculously complex, absurdly comic play Il candelaio (a box of dildos breaking open is a diversion to say the least), the predominant soundscape is a glacial one, with the only live music element being two percussionists in a handful of scenes. Eerie, monotonous, drone-like vocal lines glide atop ambient synth pads, with occasional interjections of single piano key stabs and distortion/noise electronica.

The direction leaves a little to be desired, with lots of slow, portentous walking and moments of slightly awkward blocking and choreography. Equally, the libretto is scarcely heard, an issue borne of the entire ensemble’s high register blending with the tape. What is heard is patchy, ranging from the declamatory/expositional to the overly weighty. A truly stellar cast, however, brush most of these faults to the back of one’s mind. Led by tenor Morgan Crowley as the adult Bruno, with the captivating 14-year-old Aimee Banks as young Bruno, they are unanimously outstanding.

Structural issues in the first act give way to a far more developed, successful second act, with much greater synthesis of the disparate elements at hand, narrative flow, and stage direction. Equally, a busier score demands more interest, with moments like Queen Elizabeth I’s wordless aria (recalling the wordless bed aria from Glass’s Einstein on the Beach) and Bruno’s imprisonment yielding fantastic set pieces and extended numbers. With pieces in the last 30 years like Luigi Nono’s Prometeo on the one hand and The Knife’s Tomorrow, In a Year on the other, beating a new path through opera, Heresy could be regarded as both timeless and dated all at once by comparison. This may, in fact, work in its favour. Nevertheless, the production is moving and curious overall. One hopes that Doyle will continue to produce staged work and build upon the solid ideas on show in Heresy.