Barrie Kosky’s vividly abstract production of Saul for Glyndebourne embraces every emotional detail of this dramatic oratorio, from its exhilarating choruses to its raw, intimate family scenes. Kosky adds voices beyond Handel’s music: we hear laughs, shouts, cries, sobs, sighs, gasps, even spoken words around and between the score, fleshing out each moment with human detail.…
We gather in the glorious Arts and Crafts surroundings of Our Lady Star of the Sea, Lowestoft, one of Suffolk’s most beautiful Catholic churches, on a summery April evening while the kittiwakes scream overhead. Merry Opera’s cast gradually file in, dressed in everyday clothes: twelve men and women from all walks of life, approaching the…
Even ruthless, psychotic gangsters have to fall in love sometimes. And Rodelinda is all about what happens when the people at the top of the cruel power pyramid have got their minds on… other things, like other people’s faithful wives, as well as their crime kingdoms. Director Richard Jones translates Rodelinda’s setting (originally 7th century Lombardy) to gangster warfare…
Handel’s Radamisto has a fascinating social history: it was the opera that brought about the beginnings of a reconciliation in the British establishment, previously split by the bitter family tensions between King George I and his son, the Prince of Wales, who had finally fallen out altogether in 1717 over the King’s choice of godson…
Some operas are just begging for a strapline: and if Orlando had one, it would surely be “Dorinda’s Dreadful Day”. First, Dorinda is plagued by doubts that the handsome African prince Medoro truly loves her (which he doesn’t), but optimistically decides to give him the benefit of the doubt, because she loves him. Then she’s informed…
This joyous production by English Touring Opera makes the most of the music, the characters, and the alternately hilarious and unsettling plot of Handel’s early masterpiece. Agrippina is an opera of balance and tension. It reverberates with memorable characters, yet relies on a layer of artificiality. It has moments of real humour, sophistication and elegance, yet…