Performer: Lesley Garrett

Miller's production, running since 1987, is starting to show its ago, but an excellent performance from Anna Devin keeps English National Opera's latest revival moving.

Daniel Kramer’s direction is a model of restraint compared to some of his earlier work for the company.

A decent cast was unable to redeem a fundamentally dull opera that lacks the psycholgical complexity and tension of both the original Graham novel and its famous Hitchcock adaptation.

So many things are right about Mark Simpson's new opera Pleasure, receiving its London debut at the Lyric Hammersmith.

Weddings bring out the cynic in me. They also bring out the cynic in Don Alfonso and it’s at a wedding breakfast that John Fulljames sets his production of Così fan tutte. 

The evening begins with La Voix Humaine: “Elle” is staring at us fixedly for what seems like a minute, smoke from the cigarette in her fingers providing the only movement. She sits in an oblong frame surrounded by light bulbs, indicating a substantial mirror of the sort you might find backstage. The orchestra begins, and the music is edgy.