Performer: Claron McFadden

Inspired by Annie Ernaux’s The Years, Philip Venables’ new opera widens the canvas to take in the whole of Europe’s postwar generation. 

Though ambitious and occasionally arresting, this revised and expanded take on the Purcell classic suffers from subtraction by addition.

Soprano Claron McFadden's pellucid voice tremendously contributed to the structural and sonic richness of Widmann's Versuch über die Fuge.