This was a truly operatic tale. Phaedra, falls for her stepson, Hippolytus, is rejected by him, claims to have been raped leading to him being killed by Poseidon and herself commits suicide. That's Act One. After writing this, Hans Werner Henze aged 79 apparently lapsed into a coma for two months. On coming to, he wrote Act Two, with the dead Hippolytus put back together on a operating table, renamed Virbius and confined in a cage while taunted by Phaedra. All the while, the minotaur - slain by Phaedra's husband Theseus, prowls around.
It would be hard not to be engaged with such shenanigans and Henze's music was played excellently by the Southbank Sinfonia - the percussion, clarinet and piano standing out for me.
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