A valiant Walküre at the Hackney Empire

By Mark Pullinger, 05 August 2021

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“Mark Stone’s baritone demonstrated plenty of heft, projecting Wotan’s rage viscerally”

Reviewed at Hackney Empire, London on 4 August 2021

Wagner, Die Walküre (Adapted by Jonathan Dove and Graham Vick)

Peter Selwyn, Conductor

Julia Burbach, Director

Bettina John, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Robert Price, Lighting Designer

Finnur Bjarnason, Siegmund

Natasha Jouhl, Sieglinde

Simon Wilding, Hunding

Mark Stone, Wotan

Laure Meloy, Brünnhilde

Harriet Williams, Fricka

Elizabeth Karani, Helmwige

Bethan Langford, Waltraute

Katie Stevenson, Roßweiße

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 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.

A valiant Walküre as Grimeborn's Ring relocates to the Hackney Empire