Post by joem on Mar 11, 2018 20:43:14 GMT
Enjoyable revival of the 1995 ENO production of Britten's Shakespearean outing. Whilst, in common with most of Britten's operatic work, there are few individual stand-out moments, the setting of Shakespeare's verse to music is down elegantly and skillfully. The play was, naturally, cut in parts or it would have been the longest opera in history but, in truth, it does not interrupt the flow of the three interlinked stories.
The stylish setting of a huge double-bed covers practically the entire stage and much of the action occurs on it with inventive use of smaller, and more mobile, beds. Perhaps unnecessary "pointing" of some of the bawdier comic aspects of the work but the scenes with the "rude mechanicals" worked very well, especially when Joshua Bloom (Bottom) featured.
Triumphant ENO debut for conductor Alexander Soddy whose (justifiably) proud mother sat near me.
The stylish setting of a huge double-bed covers practically the entire stage and much of the action occurs on it with inventive use of smaller, and more mobile, beds. Perhaps unnecessary "pointing" of some of the bawdier comic aspects of the work but the scenes with the "rude mechanicals" worked very well, especially when Joshua Bloom (Bottom) featured.
Triumphant ENO debut for conductor Alexander Soddy whose (justifiably) proud mother sat near me.
