Performing Arts News

A Dangerous Lady, directed  by Lisa Goldman and designed by Jean-Marc Puissant at Theatre Royal Stratford East, has had some great reviews. The third play adapted from one of Martina Cole’s tough thrillers that the theatre has staged, it runs until 17 November. Acclaim for Puissant’s sets includes: The Guardian – Michael Billington: Goldman’s production hurtles along at cinematic speed, with the aid of designer Jean-Marc Puissant’s corrugated-iron screens; and the acting is very good, too. The Independent – Laura Thompson: Directed with admirable smoothness by Lisa Goldman, on a wonderful dark set by Jean Marc Puissant that stages short scenes on revolves within the stage floor. Time Out – Matt Trueman: Lisa Goldman’s production tears off like a get-away car using the twin revolve to create a real stage-turner. The Stage – Lauren Paxman: The script packs all the action into 48 scenes, cleverly connected with the slick use of Jean-Marc Puissant’s sophisticated rotating stage design. Evening Standard – Fiona Mountford: Lisa Goldman’s virtually décor-free production whizzes us through everything with brisk efficiency, with changing styles of clothes and hair marking the passing of time, as the body count mounts and family loyalties are stretched to breaking point and beyond. It’s effective and eminently watchable. British Theatre Guide – Howard Loxton: Staged against a smoky dark background with only simple furniture a neon sign and sweeping searchlights to relieve it, designer Jean-Marc Puissant makes crime seem glamorous only in the men’s sharp suits and Maura’s turn out. To speed the action between its changing locations he has brought in a revolve which the production uses effectively.

George Benjamin’s long-awaited new opera Written on Skin, with libretto by Martin Crimp, opened to a standing ovation at its premiere in Aix-en-Provence. Directed by Katie Mitchell, with lighting by Jon Clark, France Today described it as ‘almost certainly headed straight for any list of the best operas of the 21st century so far…. Staged by Katie Mitchell and brilliantly sung by a nearly flawless cast, opening night was a collective tour de force.’ Although Andrew Clements found some of the staging distracting, he thought what ‘Benjamin and Crimp have done is remarkable’, praising powerful music, book, cast and orchestra. Alternating the bleak story behind a 13th-century troubador’s song, with commentary on the action by contemporary archaeologists re-enacting the events described in the manuscript they are restoring, the opera – and Vicki Mortimer’s strikingly-lit set – move back and forth over eight centuries. The opera was commissioned by Aix with four other opera houses, so if you can’t get to Aix, you can catch subsequent performances at Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London and the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

The new Tosca at Santa Fe Opera, designed by Yannis Thavoris, has been described as ‘a stellar production’ by the Examiner, with ‘a mighty set depicting the grand architecture of the ancient city in keeping with the opera’s historical period’. One of four Performing Arts clients working at the Santa Fe Opera this season, Yannis has produced a set consisting of elegant period rooms whose spaces have been tipped awry. In Act I the audience is looking straight at the dome of the Basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle, and the huge painting that Cavaradossi is working on becomes the floor, a feature that some reviewers found disturbing. However, as James Keller notes on Santa Fe New Mexican, the set provides a commentary on the action: ‘Scarpia’s Act II office-plus-torture-chamber suite at the Palazzo Farnese, for example, is right-side up, but it is backed by a mural crumbling in craquelure, an apt metaphor for a regime built on unsustainable tyranny.’

Andrew George has choreographed a new production of Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz at the Royal Opera House, directed by Sir David McVicar: http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/les-troyens-by-david-mcvicar The staging, designed by Es Devlin, is on an enormous scale, assembling one of the largest casts ever seen at Covent Garden, and featuring an enormous fire-breathing horse ‘more huge machine than animal’ according to the Guardian:http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jun/26/les-troyens-royal-opera-house-review. Barry Millington praises the ambition of the undertaking: ‘To mount Les Troyens in its entirety is of itself a praiseworthy undertaking and this production, strongly cast, has both musical integrity and a certain epic sweep’ and Andrew George’s  ‘sensual choreography’: http://www.standard.co.uk/arts/music/les-troyens-covent-garden–review-7887995.html