First Revival of Joe Hill-Gibbins’ The Marriage of Figaro at the London Coliseum

In 2020 director Joe Hill-Gibbins did not have much luck with his new staging of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro for English National Opera. Premiering on 14 March of that year, it was set to run until 20 April, but enjoyed no more than its first performance after COVID-19 saw all UK theatres close the following week and a formal lockdown declared on 23 March. What is technically therefore the production’s first revival at the Coliseum is in reality the first time it will...

Set in Ancient Egypt, Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida of 1871, with a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, centres on a love triangle between Radamès, Amneris and Aida. As a Princess of Egypt and the daughter of the King, Amneris believes that her feelings for the Chief of the Guard Radamès ought to be reciprocated, and is horrified when she discovers that he and Aida, an Ethiopian slave, are actually in love. When Aida’s father Amonasro is captured in battle, with the...

Legend has it (and se non è vero è ben trovato) that there is not a single day of the year when La Traviata is not performed somewhere or other on the planet. It may be an exaggeration, but it is true that this masterpiece is also extremely popular. This makes it especially dangerous for several reasons: on one hand, all the great sopranos have tackled the role and the history of excellent performances of this title is endless, La Traviata has its own collection of...

Claus Guth’s staging of Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa was one of the first artistic casualties of COVID-19. It was set to appear at the Royal Opera House in March 2020, but it never did so because the pandemic led to the venue’s closure. It finally premiered in September 2021, and proved to be well worth the wait. If anything, this first revival of the production, by Oliver Platt, is even more accomplished than the initial outing, thanks to the strength of both...

Premiering in 1893, Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, with a libretto by his sister Adelheid Wette, is based on the eponymous fairytale that was recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. It follows the Grimm version of the story reasonably closely, although there are a few notable differences including the fact that the Mother here is not intent on losing the children in the forest so that she and her husband might survive the hard times. She sends them there to...

As this year marks the centenary of Giacomo Puccini's death, it is safe to say that his operas are ageing well, based on the box office figures. This is probably due to both musical and dramatic factors. On the one hand, the expressive musical resources employed by the composer, without preparation or preamble, always stepping on the emotional accelerator and seeking impact, place his procedures in a terrain very close to that of mid-20th century film music. In fact, we could say that...