Lucrezia Borgia - English Touring Opera, Norwich Theatre Royal

Glyndebourne's decision to cancel their 2023 tour schedule, blaming a reduction in their Arts Council England funding, came as a huge disappointment to Norwich opera audiences. So it was perhaps doubly reassuring, at the pre-performance talk ahead of English Touring Opera's performance of Donizetti's 'Lucrezia Borgia' at Norwich Theatre Royal this week, to hear Robin Norton-Hale, the company's new General Director, sounding both confident and determined in her pledge to continue to strengthen their relationship with Norwich Theatre audiences, as well as continue the work they do with local schools, and audiences with special educational needs and disabilities.

For opera is something that I have learned to love, and it was only when I moved to Norwich that touring opera became an accessible and affordable prospect for me. And so, on Friday night, whilst the pubs and bars of Norwich were packed out with Guinness-guzzling St Patrick's Day revellers, I instead was transported to Renaissance Italy – to Venice and to Ferrara, for a date with one of opera's most infamous characters – Lucrezia Borgia.

The action to Donizetti's bel canto style opera opens during the Venice Carnival in 1510, where Gennaro (Thomas Elwin, tenor) and friends, including the boyish, leather-trousered Orsini (Katie Coventry, contralto), are en route to Ferrara. The passage of a giant moon across a dimly-lit stage sets the time-line, and Gennaro falls asleep in a gondola, only to be woken by a mysterious masked woman. She is Lucrezia Borgia (sung beautifully tonight by young New Zealander Katherine McIndoe, soprano, deputising for Paula Sides who was absent through illness).

Act Two is where the intrigue and plotting really kicks off. Duke Alfonso (Aidan Edwards, bass) is suspicious of Gennaro, who is subsequently abducted on Alfonso's orders and brought to his palace. Following a trumped-up charge of smearing the Borgia name, Gennaro is forced to drink poisoned wine, only to be saved by an antidote administered by Lucrezia Borgia. Round One to Gennaro.

Rather than do the sensible thing, and get out of town, Act Three sees Gennaro back at a party inside the palace with his fab five friends, and he is drunkenly swearing life-long allegiance to his trousered companion Orsini. Lucrezia, however, in revenge for the group's insulting behaviour the previous night (they had removed the letter 'B' from the palace gates, leaving it to read 'Orgia', Italian for 'orgy'), had arranged this time for all five friends to be poisoned. But, believing that Gennaro had taken her advice and gotten out of town, he also ends up getting poisoned again. Then, as he is dying, comes the big reveal [PLOT SPOILER ALERT!] – Gennaro is actually Lucrezia Borgia's illegitimate son! This time he refuses the antidote, choosing to die with his friends rather than be saved by his scheming mother.

The plot is gripping, the music glorious (all played on authentic period instruments by members of the Old Street Band, under the direction of conductor Gerry Cornelius), and there are some great vocal performances. McIndoe is most impressive as Lucrezia Borgia (certainly a name to watch), and the pairing of Elwin and Coventry as Gennaro and Orsini generates a keen sense of chemistry. As can sometimes be the case with touring productions, the set design possibly owes more to ease of transport than visual spectacle – the basic framweork remains in place throughout, the canal-side columns of Venice doubling up as palace gates, and even as the interior of the bath-house. But this is mere nit-picking.

Donizetti's 'Lucrezia Borgia' is predominantly an opera about character, loyalty, love, lies and deceit, and under Eloise Lally's expert direction the audience is transported seamlessly through the emotional intrigue of the three acts, revealing so much about the convoluted lives of the notorious Borgia dynasty, and of the last few days of Lucrezia Borgia and her son Gennaro.

As a relative latecomer to the Opera Lovers' Ball, I am aware of sounding like a stuck record whenever I bang on about this wonderful musical art form, but it is only because of companies like English Touring Opera that my fire was lit, and continues to burn. So please continue to support these touring productions when they come to Norwich. If you have not been to an opera before, be brave and add it tn you bucket list now. There is a wonderful world of music, passion and drama out there, just waiting to be discovered.