Artiste: George von Bergen

Gaitanou’s direction of the singers is so exact that it becomes impossible to separate them from their characters.

An embarrassingly trite libretto proves unsalvageable, even with a committed cast of singers.

The sheer opulence of Minghella's staging often overwhelms, drenched in colour. Is that enough to really get to the core of the drama though, or is it all surface gloss?