Performer: Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra

Opera Atelier presents a double bill at the Royal Opera in Versailles filled with Baroque dancing, scenery and music.

Bringing together disparate art forms is no easy task, as Tafelmusik's latest concert House of Dreams sadly proves. 

Opera Atelier’s latest production mixes traditional-specific touches the company is known for, and more high-concept inclusions. The results are mixed — but the singing is spectacular.

Ludwig van Beethoven once said: “Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.” On 19 September, 2013, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra performed three works by the late Classical and early Romantic composer: the overture to Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, and his first two symphonies.

As Handel made music of John Milton’s poems L’Allegro and il Penseroso , Mark Morris made Handel’s music dance. The 32 scenes of Morris’ ballet breathe with inspiration of figures and designs from watercolours William Blake did for an edition of Milton’s poems.

Opera Atelier espouses truth in advertising: The Magic Flute, they tell us, is a Singspiel in two acts. You can call it a play with songs, a musical comedy, even an operetta, but hardly an opera in the traditional sense. Call it what you will, this is Opera Atelier’s fourth production of the work in the last 22 years.