At Wilton’s Music Hall, a ghost light for Britten’s ghost story

By Mark Pullinger, 28 January 2021

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“we brush past barley-sugar twisted pillars and rusty pipes, clamber the rickety staircases”

Reviewed at Wilton's Music Hall, London on 26 January 2021

Britten, The Turn of the Screw

OperaGlass Works

John Wilson, Conductor

Selina Cadell, Director

Tom Piper, Set Designer

Rosalind Ebbutt, Costume Designer

Lewis Hannaby, Lighting Designer

Eliza Thompson, Director

Dominic Best, Co-director

Robert Murray, Peter Quint, The Prologue

Rhian Lois, Governess

Gweneth-Ann Rand, Mrs Grose

Francesca Chiejina, Miss Jessel

Leo Jemison, Miles

Alys Mererid Roberts, Flora

Devilishly good fun: The Rake's Progress

Benjamin Poore, 17th November

A compelling and energetic debut production from a new opera company in the raddled surroundings of Wilton's Music Hall.

****1

A noble Norma trapped in a hollow dystopia

Andrew Larkin, 24th May

Salome Jicia delivers a vocally impressive and emotionally committed Norma, but Orpha Phelan’s post-apocalyptic staging fatally weakens Bellini’s sacred tragedy.

***11

A deli-cious revival of Rossini’s Il turco in Italia at Glyndebourne

Dominic Lowe, 23rd May

Mariame Clément’s production of Rossini's meta comedy is tightly revived with some excellent singing. Come for the writing tips, stay for the cured meats.

****1

Superb musical performances in Pinchgut's Scarlatti rarity in Sydney

Sandra Bowdler, 23rd May

As usual, Pinchgut lavishes musical excellence on an obscure Baroque work... but why stage an oratorio?

****1

The Met’s Frida y Diego proves visually stunning, musically thrilling

David Wolfson, 22nd May

Deborah Colker and her design team create visually vibrant worlds for the Met’s new production of El último sueño de Frida y Diego, by Pulitzer Prize winner Gabriela Lena Frank.

*****

Glyndebourne’s first Tosca: vocally strong but imperfect

David Karlin, 21st May

Ted Huffman brings some interesting ideas to his first Glyndebourne production. Excellent singing is let down by indifferent physical acting.

***11

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.