Slim-line Rheingold opens at Grimeborn Festival

By Mark Valencia, 01 August 2019

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“Who needs surtitles when you could follow the whole plot by watching Wotan’s face?”

Reviewed at Arcola Theatre, London on 31 July 2019

Wagner, Das Rheingold

Peter Selwyn, Conductor

Julia Burbach, Director

Bettina John, Set Designer

Paul Carey Jones, Wotan

Philip Sheffield, Loge

Seth Carico, Alberich

Gareth Brynmor John, Donner

Kiandra Howarth, Freia, Woglinde

Claire Barnett-Jones, Wellgunde

Harriet Williams, Erda

Angharad Lyddon, Flosshilde

Marianne Vidal, Fricka

Dingle Yandell, Fafner

Andrew Tipple, Fasolt

Orpheus Sinfonia

Sir David McVicar’s psychologically driven Salome arrives in Chicago

Graham Meyer, 25th January

Revived at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the notorious opera director’s take stirs sympathy for Salome, but leans on some of his theatrical hobby-horses

****1

Comedy falls flat in ENO's season opening Cinderella

Mark Valencia, 27th September

Julia Burbach and her designer, Herbert Murauer, are defeated by the wide canyons of the Coliseum stage in their modern-dress Cinderella.

**111

Doomed Dutchman wants a wife: Wagner makes Opera Holland Park debut

Eleanor Knight, 27th May

Amid the rough winds of late May, Julia Burbach directs Opera Holland Park's first venture into Wagner – The Flying Dutchman.

***11

Julia Burbach delivers a potent Elixir in Prague

Frank Kuznik, 22nd September

Donizetti's frothy romantic comedy takes on fresh appeal in this faithful rendering at the State Opera.

*****

Grimeborn delivers a wholly satisfying Half Ring at Hackney Empire

Roy Westbrook, 6th August

Using Jonathan Dove and Graham Vick's distillations of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, the company concluded its miniature Ring cycle in under five hours, without sacrificing musical or dramatic tension.

****1

An icy Eugene Onegin at Opera Holland Park

Kevin W Ng, 31st May

Julia Burbach's new production lacks poetry in spite of an admirable cast led by Samuel Dale Johnson in the title role.

***11

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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.