For his fifth opera, Detlev Glanert has composed the Caligula not of Suetonius (or Tinto Brass) but of Camus, so no incest or horsing around. Drusilla is dead; all that remains for the young emperor is a lurching advancement towards oblivion, taking almost everyone on stage with him.

With only the original libretto and an English synopsis to guide them, non-German speakers may wish to furnish themselves with the original Camus (or the excellent English version by David Greig) from which Hans-Ulrich Treichel has fashioned a libretto in four acts. The adaptation amplifies the rape of Livia, mid-supper in Act 2, and makes ripe and sickly what was sharp and bitter in the original, like Strauss does for Wilde’s Salome: Caligula lusts for the moon just as the princess pines for the head of Jochanaan. Caligula’s own insertion-dance before the finale is based around a catchy, Adams-like ostinato figure first heard at the start of Act 3: listeners who enjoyed Adès’s The Tempest should find here a similarly accessible way of approaching new opera.

The opulent malevolence and unceasing tension of satellite works such as the organ concerto Theatrum bestiarum (on Avie, 1/08) offer Glanert fans some idea of what to expect – both works share a complex and collapsing opening chord – but so do his imaginative but not lurid orchestrations of grave and introspective Lieder by Brahms and Schubert (the long “Einsamkeit” especially).

Ashley Holland in the title-role shapes his own arioso reflections on loneliness with suavity under pressure and the supporting cast seems admirably secure for a first performance; doubtless much of the credit must go to Markus Stenz for keeping Strauss and Berg behind us, present as shadows but not overpowering Glanert’s own voice. The sense of the stage is strong and frustrating: the production photos in the booklet suggest that ordinary- or conversational-sounding vocal lines, especially for the gaggle of aristocratic conspirators, do genuinely “speak” in a dramatic context. A DVD would be welcome; a staging in my neck of the woods even more so.