A shining Silver Lake from English Touring Opera

By Stephen Pritchard, 07 October 2019

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“James Conway’s direction makes everything crystal clear”

Reviewed at Hackney Empire, London on 5 October 2019

Weill, Der Silbersee (Sung in German with English narration)

English Touring Opera

James Holmes, Conductor

James Conway, Director

Adam Wiltshire, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Ronald Samm, Olim

David Webb, Severin

Luci Briginshaw, Fennimore

Sarah Pring, Frau von Luber

James Kryshak, Baron Laur, Lottery agent

Abigail Kelly, Salesgirl I

Hollie-Anne Bangham, Salesgirl II

Jan Capinski, Comrade I

Bradley Travis, Comrade III

Andrew Tipple, Gravedigger

David W Kidd, Lighting Designer

Bernadette Iglich, Narrator

English Touring Opera Orchestra

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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Stephen Pritchard

Stephen Pritchard began singing as a treble at the age of eight and progressed to become a tenor in Portsmouth Cathedral Choir, the Gibbons Consort and now the English Chamber Choir. Writing about music has been at the core of his 40-year career in journalism, chiefly at the Observer. He has been known to play a pretty mean jazz double bass.