Thomas Lynch's decor and Martin Pakledinaz's costumes will probably raise the most eyebrows. Lynch, who has done such good work here, conceived the opera to take place in a cramped temple to Diana, with dark red walls and a long bas-relief. There is nothing expansive or awe-inspiring about this space, as if to remind us, the audience, that we are no longer in Greece but in a foreign, barbarian land.
The temple takes up about two-thirds of the stage, the rest being an anteroom that resembles a giant, unfinished, industrial storage closet, and a slim window on stage left that opens to the sky. The effect is strangely off-putting, which has to be his intention. Pakledinaz's costumes are rather dreary and ragged.
No beautiful white, flowing material for these people.
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