Escape to the country: Bernstein's Candide at Iford

By Charlotte Valori, 31 May 2018

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“The pace never falters”

Reviewed at Iford Manor, Bradford on Avon on 29 May 2018

Bernstein, Candide

If Opera

Oliver Gooch, Conductor

Jeff Clarke, Director

Nigel Howard, Set Designer

David Horton, Candide

Paula Sides, Cunegonde

Claire Watkins, Paquette

Rosemary Ashe, Old Lady

Peter Van Hulle, Governor

Sam Harrison, Maximilian

Carl Sanderson, Doctor Pangloss

Orpheus Sinfonia

A Fairy Queen at Iford

Charlotte Valori, 23rd July

An especially adapted version of Purcell's Fairy Queen, reworked by Timothy Nelson, inspires an exceptional reading from a talented young cast at Iford.

****1

So foul and fair a day: Verdi's Macbeth at Iford

Charlotte Valori, 11th June

Iford's stone cloister makes a suitably eerie setting for a fine traditional account of Verdi's Macbeth, notable for its powerful male leads, from Iford Festival Opera and the CHROMA Ensemble.

****1

Agrippina: Power-dressed and power hungry

Charlotte Valori, 25th July

Bruno Ravella's version of Handel's Agrippina moves the action from Classical Rome to the avaricious Eighties in a sharp, amusing night at Iford.

***11

Getting behind the mask: an intense Ballo at Iford

Charlotte Valori, 6th June

While it may seem perfectly formed for the full grand opera treatment, Verdi's classic Un ballo in maschera can also work extremely well on a small scale, as shown by this intimate and compelling treatment by Timothy Nelson at Iford.

****1

Some enchanted evening: La rondine at Iford

Charlotte Valori, 14th June

Rapturously romantic, intimate, moving, unforgettable: more English summer opera should be like Iford. And the garden is like Narnia in the spring.

****1

A Hell's Angel Fille du Régiment

Charlotte Valori, 5th July

We all know the story about how an opera is supposed to end, but it turns out it is definitely not over until all the fat, black-leather-jacketed, bearded gentlemen sing, and then ride triumphantly away with you on their Harley-Davidsons...

****1

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Charlotte Valori

Charlotte Valori read Classics at Christ Church, Oxford. As a classicist, her main interest is Greek tragedy and its reception by later cultures, which has led to a continuing passion for theatre and opera. Charlotte reviews for several online magazines, and won the Bachtrack Opera Award 2015 for Best Written English Review. Follow her on Twitter @operissima.