British artists are good at building big weird things on Lake Constance. Such Bregenz work came from David Pountney/Stefanos Lazaridis and Richard Jones/Antony McDonald. Now leading opera-makers Keith Warner and David Fielding have conjured a deconstruction of Giordano’s and Illica’s snapshot of the French Revolution using one of its most iconic images, David’s Death of Marat.

The picture’s watery location both suits Bregenz’s lake stage and gives Warner space to layer Illica’s action. Another book (Chénier’s poems, of course) gives the poet (the convincingly ardent Héctor Sandoval) his own mini-stage from which to write and lecture; back-projection illustrates his imagery. Richard Angas’s major-domo/narrator/figure of death (also public prosecutor Fouquier-Tinville) stalks around with his sickle or rows intended victims of the guillotine through Marat’s bath. The widow Madelon (Rosalind Plowright) harangues the mob through Marat’s mouth. The crowd, prominently featuring condemned (but reprieved) mother Idia Legray, are everywhere on the stairs surrounding Marat’s head.

In a booklet interview Warner talks of ‘the destructive vortex’ of the Revolutionary time and thinks that there are ‘no characters in Italian opera, apart from those of late-period Verdi, that are more convincing or who develop in such a dramatic and realistic way’. He backs this up by playing Gérard (Scott Hendricks) as neurotic and torn – rather than as the heroic Danton with whom he is often equated – while Maddalena (Norma Fantini) understands immediately the criticisms of the aristocracy inherent in Chénier’s verse.

To gain more time for the show’s move into the high Revolution period after Act 1 and for the aftermath of the Act 3 trial, David Blake was asked to compose short interludes quoting Revolutionary songs and with a substantial solo for Maddalena’s maid Bersi. This also helps to authenticate (and de-melodramatise) the reality of the action. The only question mark about the enterprise’s transfer to DVD – and this may well be endemic to the venue – is the relative weight and balance of the orchestral and choral sound which, as mixed here, lack the force of the amplified solo voices. None the less, hugely recommended – a fine mix of spectacle and intelligent interpretation.