Tag Archives: Ben Johnson

Don Giovanni all at sea at Opera Holland Park

Mozart: Don Giovanni ** Opera Holland Park, 3rd June 2017 This production opens like the perfect whodunnit. Passengers embark with their luggage aboard an ocean liner for a transatlantic cruise, busily locating their cabins. Within moments there’s an attempted rape, … Continue reading

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La traviata: Lightning fails to strike twice in ENO revival of Konwitschny’s production

Verdi: La traviata *** English National Opera, 9th February 2015 “È strano!” – “How curious!” – murmurs Violetta in the last moments of La traviata, on the sudden absence of pain before her final death throes. Two years ago, when this … Continue reading

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ENO’s new Magic Flute mixes high-tech with simple stagecraft

Mozart: The Magic Flute **** English National Opera, 7th November 2013 For all the risk-taking in the operatic world, productions which are guaranteed bums-on-seats bankers are like Nibelung gold. To scrap not one but two such productions is a brave … Continue reading

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It’s curtains for Violetta: Corinne Winters triumphs in Konwitschny’s stripped-down Traviata

Verdi: La traviata ***** English National Opera, 2nd February 2013 Red curtains peel apart tentatively to reveal a chair… and another set of red curtains. And that, in essence (save for a stack of books) is it for the set … Continue reading

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