The Skating Rink: Shivers up and down the spine

By Charlotte Valori, 06 July 2018

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“this opera questions how society fails individuals, how we force and fail each other in life”

Reviewed at Garsington Opera, High Wycombe on 5 July 2018

Sawer, The Skating Rink

Garsington Opera

Garry Walker, Conductor

Stewart Laing, Director, Set Designer

Hyemi Shin, Costume Designer

Grant Doyle, Enric

Sam Furness, Gaspar

Ben Edquist, Remo

Susan Bickley, Carmen

Claire Wild, Caridad

Lauren Zolezzi, Nuria

Alan Oke, Rookie

Louise Winter, Pilar

The Gascoigne Orchestra

Malcolm Rippeth, Lighting Designer

Alice Poggio, Skater

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Peter Quantrill, 27th June

Simple solutions prove the best in Beethoven's "problem" opera as John Cox's staging is revived at Garsington.

****1

Ravishing Rodelinda: Handel al fresco at Garsington Opera

Roy Westbrook, 13th June

Ruth Knight untangles Handel's Rodelinda, directing a new staging at Garsington which features a feast of fine singing.

****1

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Roy Westbrook, 29th May

Jack Furness directs a terrific new Queen of Spades at Garsington – haunting and harrowing.

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Garsington’s L’elisir d’amore: Dr Feelgood wins the day

David Karlin, 28th May

Simon Higlett’s exquisite sets and costumes give a backdrop to Donizetti’s frothiest of rom-coms.

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Madcap comedy from Verdi: Un giorno di regno at Garsington

David Karlin, 29th June

Christopher Alden, Chris Hopkins and an excellent cast send us a comic roller coaster ride with Verdi’s ultra-rarely performed second opera.

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Garsington Opera's new A Midsummer Night's Dream

Roy Westbrook, 16th June

In the first and last acts, ladies entered with a train still attached to a bolt of cloth, which was then cut to length by an attendant. Was this production brought to the stage in a great hurry, allowing no time for costume fittings?

***11

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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.

Shivers up and down the spine: David Sawer's The Skating Rink at Garsington