Mainly Opera and Ballet
What a wonderful breath of fresh air — an ultimately tragic story but brimming with self-confidence, energy and sparkle. How very different from the recent Covent Garden production of Rossini’s William Tell where superb music and singing was ruined by a flat-footed production team trying to be intellectual. Real cleverness relies on stagecraft, lighting and …
This debut play by Mark Hayhurst about the viciousness inherent in the early days of the Nazi regime began its West End production in the run-up to Holocaust Memorial Day, after a highly successful start in Jonathan Church’s gripping production at Chichester last summer. It illustrates the Nazi regime in its very early days, through …
Bertolt Brecht wrote this play, parodying Hitler as Chicago mobster Arturo Ui, in less than a month in 1941 while awaiting his US visa in Helsinki. Other main characters represent various people Hitler either used or killed to get where he was. Its didacticism is intended for an American audience, and although the first act dragged a …
… in these performances the stylish overacting kept the audience in suspense and drew out the humour without ever overdoing it.
