Two Boys - a new age of opera?

Two Boys - composed by Nico Muhly and directed by Craig Lucas

ENO @ Coliseum, London

Two Boys can be awarded the distinction of being the first 'internet opera'. Much of its dialogue and timeline is set in cyberspace, the Coliseum transformed into an enormous chat room, the audience voyeurs to a particularly dark series of events. The plot, however, is a more traditional whodunit – one that would not be out of place in an ITV crime drama. The comparison doesn’t stop there either, for as so often happens in these two part thrillers, the first part sets the scene – only to undo a fair bit of its good work with over eager story signposts in the second.

By no means is this production a complete failure, however. The internet may not emerge with a good reputation, but the allure of its late 1990s promise is vividly portrayed by Nico Muhly and Craig Lucas, aided by animations and projections from 59 Productions. Their depiction of internet traffic is one of the highlights of the first half, accompanied as it is by opulent orchestration from the composer. It is one of the genuinely affirming moments of a half that generates considerable tension as the plot rises.

The main characters are successful rather than outstanding. Nicky Spence dons a Manchester City shirt as Brian, a football –loving teenager who ends up pitched some way between Harry Enfield's character Kevin and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Happiness. Led astray by online temptation, he falls under the spell of a number of different characters, all of which have something to do with fellow teenager Jake, given deceptive choirboy innocence by Joseph Beesley. Presiding over the two boys and their criminal activities is Susan Bickley's detective inspector Anne Rawson, wearily effective but no Jane Tennyson, despite the bottle in the office desk.

The use of text speak as the two boys become acquainted is sometimes clunky but otherwise authentic – the 'c u tomorrow' and 'omg' references are there as a representation of internet shorthand rather than for cheap laughs – and the chat room sessions bring an unusual if uneven tension to the plot in the first half. In the second they are more obviously stage managed as the mystery becomes clear to everyone but Rawson, oblivious to the internet and its inner workings.

What the plot cries out for is a distinctive and dramatic score, yet this is something only fitfully glimpsed in Nico Muhly's vocal and orchestral writing. When things are bad this is not a problem, as rasping tubas and rolling percussion are on hand to add a much-needed edge, but during the conversation scenes the music drags, looking for melodic inspiration to add to its silvery and often attractive orchestration, but rarely finding more than some attractive loops and rhythms. Muhly's admiration of Britten, Glass and Adams is evident – though after a while the mind is led to wonder what Britten himself might have done with a plot such as this.

Two Boys is a brave attempt to bring the Internet to dramatic life, an ambitious subject for a first opera from a 29 year old composer who fitfully realises the promise shown in other vocal works such as Impossible Things. He will surely go on to make more accomplished work for the stage, but for now has laid down a marker on which to build.