Review: In the Penal Colony *****

They played Leeds as part of their nine-venue UK premire tour of Philip Glass' 10 year- old opera, In the Penal Colony, based on a Kafka short story. It involves an on-stage string quintet, a baritone Prison Officer who rejoices in the workings of his execution machine, a tenor Visitor who has been summoned to witness an execution, a non-speaking Condemned Man, a table, a chair and a ladder.

From these sparse elements is built a psychological exploration – part drama, part meditation – of every possible issue arising from the circumstance of judicial execution. Its music is inexorable throughout its intense 80-minutes duration, with constantly changing and pulsating rhythmic patterns. It has lyric elements, providing a base for the two singers, and also a mysterious beauty.

Perhaps the only flaw in director Michael McCarthy and conductor Michael Rafferty's creation was the amplification of the singers, which in this small venue masked rather than enhanced the all-important and dense text. The string quintet, in a tour de force of musicianship, maintained the musical tension unwaveringly. The three protagonists – baritone Omar Ebrahim, tenor Michael Bennett and actor Gerald Tyler – gave searing performances of unmatchable brilliance.

Howard Assembly Room, Leeds.