Britten's recurring Dream at the Royal College of Music

By Mark Valencia, 06 March 2018

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“a stunning new environment that’s dark, claustrophobic, surprising and mysterious”

Reviewed at Royal College of Music: Britten Theatre, London on 5 March 2018

Britten, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Michael Rosewell, Conductor

Liam Steel, Director

Michael Pavelka, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Timothy Morgan, Oberon

Harriet Eyley, Tytania

Lauren Morris, Hermia

Josephine Goddard, Helena

Kieran Rayner, Demetrius

Joel Williams, Lysander

Timothy Edlin, Bottom

Hugo Herman-Wilson, Quince

Robert Forrest, Snout

Conall O'Neill, Snug

Thomas Erlank, Flute

Dan D'Souza, Starveling

Peter Edge, Theseus

Ida Ränzlöv, Hippolyta

George Longworth, Puck

Royal College of Music Classical Orchestra

Nightmares dressed as daydreams: Respighi and Ravel at the RCM

Dominic Lowe, 13th March

An opportunity to hear one of Respighi's operas in the UK is a real treat; the composer's take on Sleeping Beauty, La bella dormente nel bosco, is an ideal companion to to Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges in a terrific double bill at the Royal College of Music.

****1

Humdinger of a Gianni Schicchi from ETO

Mark Pullinger, 2nd March

A great return appearance for English Touring Opera's Puccini double bill opening its spring tour at the Hackney Empire.

****1

Fresh, funny, frivolous: Patience in Cambridge

Charlotte Valori, 26th April

A joyous explosion of tuneful Victorian satire provides an unlikely, yet ideal, contrast to English Touring Opera's Tosca as their Patience tours the UK in this finely-cast, period-perfect production.

****1

Cecilia Bartoli as Maria in Salzburg

Jonathan Sutherland, 13th May

A case of “seeing double” in Salzburg, as Cecilia Bartoli brings West Side Story to her Whitsun Festival.

***11

A very wicked village: Britten's Albert Herring at the RCM

Charlotte Valori, 2nd July

The laughs keep on coming in Liam Steel's glorious 1950s Albert Herring in an English village where pretensions rise as morals decay, while Nick Pritchard shines as our modest eponymous hero.

****1

Fun-filled Magic Flute from ETO in Hackney

Ken Ward, 7th March

English Touring Opera's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute launches in Hackney, balanced more towards fun than profundity, with some stunning coups de théâtre.

****1

More reviews...

Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.

Benjamin Britten's recurring Dream, this time at the Royal College of Music