One of the numerous composers frequently heard in western Europe while remaining all but unknown in the UK, René Koering (b1940) has amassed a sizeable output ranging from works for conventional forces to those featuring electronics and even DJs. Music for the stage figures prominently, and it was natural that Scènes de chasse (2008) be premiered by the National Opera of Montpellier, whose general manager Koering has been over the past decade.

Its libretto derived from Penthesilea by the short-lived though influential playwright Heinrich von Kleist, the opera is in one act that comprises 14 continuous scenes. Kleist’s fanciful yet evocative gloss on the Trojan Wars centres on the attraction between Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, and Achilles: one in which the spiritual and carnal become fatefully – indeed fatally – blurred. This is a subject rich in psychological and sexual facets, though how well these are conveyed by the music is a moot point. In its combination of frequently aggressive dissonance and fractured lyricism, Koering’s idiom is demonstrably in the European modernist mainstream of the past quarter-century and more – amply underlining extreme emotions while providing relatively little in the way of character depiction or even covert compassion. An interesting feature is that, though the libretto is in German, the main protagonists both have lengthy monologues spoken in French. On stage these are assumed by actors, but on disc the alternation – and sometimes even the superimposition – of song and speech proves ultimately inhibiting rather than illuminating, and not least when the amplification of spoken parts gives them a different acoustic presence.

The opera is dominated by Fionnuala McCarthy’s passionate yet vulnerable Penthesilea and Quentin Hayes’s imposing yet guileless Achilles, in what is a strong overall cast. Alain Altinoglu secures a visceral orchestral response, making the most of Koering’s angular woodwind and elaborate percussion writing, though the sound reflects the confinement of the orchestra pit a little too faithfully. Two booklets – one with extensive essays and the other with the libretto – enhance a package worth investigating by anyone interested in contemporary opera, though a DVD release might have given it wider appeal.