Some people get terribly, passionately serious about Wagner. This shouldn’t be a problem: truly great music of all kinds tends to attract obsessive adulation, especially whenever the artist is a controversial, genre-breaking genius (cf. the recent press reaction to the death of David Bowie). But the sad fact is that too often, this fervent Wagner-worship…
The Master Builder, Halvard Solness, is universally acknowledged by his townsfolk as a lucky man: self-made and supremely successful in business, his good fortune is not due to skill or merit, but to a terrible accident many years ago, which also killed his twin sons and destroyed his marriage. However, it also gave him the…
“I can unmake you the same way I made you. I write the story, remember?” Rachel Cusk’s brilliant vision of Euripides’ Medea for the Almeida transforms the barbarian witch into a modern-day writer: but, just as the ancient Medea’s spells had immortal force, so the new Medea’s power with words, particularly her fearless refusal to…
Sophocles in the 1980s: Mark Antony Turnage shapes Berkoff’s contemporary East End vision of Oedipus under Thatcherism – via Tufnell Park, football crowds and a very sinister café – into opera. Music Theatre Wales’ strong production, led by Marcus Farnsworth as Eddy: the original m****rf****r. Music Theatre Wales’ simple set (ordinary clothes, white formica furniture,…
“She was a poor, mysterious little creature, just like anyone else…” When the ageing Prince Golaud finds the beautiful Mélisande crying beside a well in the forest, he is instantly smitten. He asks her, begs her to come away with him. When she asks where he would take her, he replies he does not know;…