Mainly Opera and Ballet
A man’s father is killed by an accidental gunshot. He holds his sister and her foreign lover responsible, and vows revenge. Despite the lovers parting, and taking sanctuary in religious devotion, they cannot escape the son’s undying fury, which in a scene of poetic justice reunites them at the end. The opera is based on …
Schiller’s Don Carlos is an intensely human drama. It uses as a background the Spanish Court during the reign of Philip II, the same Philip who was co-ruler of England after his marriage to Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII. The drama tells of a love match between his son and heir Carlos, and Elisabeth …
Since Covent Garden revived this opera in 2010 for the first time in over a century a quite different production set in a 1930s fascist state was unveiled at Holland Park. Both this and the original 1730 setting in the theatrical world of Paris, lovingly recreated in David McVicar’s production, work well, and with superb …
