Die Wahrheit liegt in der Musik: Dido and Aeneas an der Royal Academy

By Rainer Zerbst, 01 June 2021

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“Bernadette Johns... ein Sopran, dem eine große Zukunft beschieden sein dürfte”

Reviewed at Royal Academy of Music: Susie Sainsbury Theatre, London on 27 May 2021

Purcell, Dido and Aeneas

Royal Academy Opera

Elizabeth Kenny, Conductor

Jack Furness, Director

Laura Jane Stanfield, Costume Designer

Clare O'Donoghue, Lighting Designer

Bernadette Johns, Dido

Dan D'Souza, Aeneas

Grace-Marie Wyatt, Belinda

Camilla Harris, 2nd Woman

Kathleen Nic Dhiarmada, 1st Enchantress

Isla MacEwan, 2nd Enchantress

Silja Elsabet Brynjarsdóttir, Sorceress

Victoria Newlyn, Movement director

The Royal Academy's Carmen has too many what-if moments

Dominic Lowe, 18th November

Presenting a work like Carmen is a punchy move by a conservatoire. The Royal Academy of Music's production has conceptual weaknesses, but features some good singing.

***11

Royal Academy Opera stages a magical Zauberflöte

Mark Valencia, 18th March

A lyrical yet zesty account of Mozart's' adorable score, in a production that is on the nose and off the wall.

****1

A dystopian Hansel und Gretel at the RAM

Mark Valencia, 20th November

Jack Furness serves up an unappetising mess of Humperdinck's delicious masterpiece for Royal Academy Opera.

***11

Keeping it surreal: Martinů double-bill at the Royal Academy of Music

Dominic Lowe, 8th May

With typical spirit, the students at the Royal Academy of Music did an excellent job in bringing Martinů’s Comedy on the Bridge and Alexandre bis to life – two lesser-known pre-war surrealist gems.

***11

Unreal city: The Rake's Progress at the Royal Academy of Music

Benjamin Poore, 22nd November

Frederic Wake-Walker's realisation of the Hogarth-inspired opera is visually bracing and assuredly sung.

****1

Emotion and mayhem: a golden double bill from Royal Academy Opera

Stephen Pritchard, 18th March

Students triumph in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges.

****1

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Rainer Zerbst

Seit dem Studium an den Universitäten Tübingen und Bangor und Promotion ist Rainer Zerbst freier Kulturjournalist für Hörfunk und Presse. Autor u.a. von "Antoni Gaudí".

Die Wahrheit liegt in der Musik: Purcells Dido and Aeneas an der Royal Academy Opera