Xerxes: quirky revival sparkles vocally

By Olivia Bell, 10 October 2016

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“Never before have curlers been clipped in place with such grim determination”

Reviewed at Hackney Empire, London on 8 October 2016

Handel, Serse (Xerxes)

English Touring Opera

Jonathan Peter Kenny, Conductor

James Conway, Director

Sarah Bacon, Set Designer

Julia Riley, Serse

Laura Mitchell, Romilda

Clint van der Linde, Arsamene

Galina Averina, Atalanta

Carolyn Dobbin, Amastre

Peter Brathwaite, Elviro

Andrew Slater, Ariodate

Old Street Band

Art imitates art in ETO’s bracing new Pagliacci

Dominic Lowe, 10th April

Divorced from Cavalleria rusticana, English Touring Opera’s contemporary take on Leoncavallo’s masterpiece ticks all the boxes.

****1

English Touring Opera transfers Donizetti to the English coast

Dominic Lowe, 27th September

L'elisir d'amore may not immediately bring Skegness or Romney to mind, but ETO's new production works quite well there... just look out for the seagulls!

***11

Blissful and hard-boiled: I Capuleti e i Montecchi at ETO

David Karlin, 22nd February

Eloise Lally shifts the Romeo and Juliet love story into New York mafia families. Jessica Cale and Samantha Price provide blissful bel canto as the star-crossed lovers.

****1

A tender Shakespeare-inspired curio from English Touring Opera

Susannah Moody, 15th February

ETO kicks off its spring season with What Dreams May Come, a strange and moving staging of songs inspired by William Shakespeare.

***11

Theatrically poverty-stricken: ETO's Blond Eckbert

Mark Valencia, 18th October

Judith Weir's cryptic folk opera lacks the narrative propulsion necessary to enthral an audience, and without resolution there is no catharsis.

**111

ETO's The Snowmaiden melts the heart and gladdens the ears

Dominic Lowe, 28th September

Olivia Fuchs' production of Rimsky-Korsakov's charming fable for ETO begins its tour in Hackney and is worth travelling to see. Catch this thoughtful production in a town near you.

****1

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Olivia Bell

Olivia has recently graduated as Senior choral Scholar from Queens' College, Cambridge, where she read English and became Culture Editor at the Tab. A freelance soprano, she currently works as a content editor at the Telegraph.

Xerxes: ETO’s quirky revival sparkles vocally but is not all plane sailing