Emerging from the gloom: Handel's Ottone revived by ETO in Hackney

James Hall (Ottone)

Nazan Fikret (Teofane)

Kieron-Connor Valentine (Adelberto), Edward Jowle (Emireno), James Hall and Nazan Fikret

By Mark Valencia, 02 October 2022

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“six characters in search of a plot whose inertia is only allayed by the vaguest of dramatic arcs”

Reviewed at Hackney Empire, London on 1 October 2022

Handel, Ottone, re di Germania

English Touring Opera

Gerry Cornelius, Conductor

James Conway, Director

takis, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Tim van 't Hof, Lighting Designer

Old Street Band

Christopher Moon-Little, Revival Director

Rebecca van Beeck, Revival Designer

James Hall, Ottone

Nazan Fikret, Teofane

Elizabeth Karani, Gismonda

Kieron-Connor Valentine, Adelberto

Eirlys Myfanwy Davies, Matilda

Edward Jowle, Emireno

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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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.