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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Barry Millington's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Diane Paulus.
Cast: English National Opera, Baldur Bronnimann (cond), Riccardo Hernandez (des)
Description: Baldur Bronnimann takes the baton as Diane Paulus directs Olga Neuwirth's adaptation of Twin Peaks director David Lynch's dream-like film noir in which jazz saxophonist Fred Madison wrestles with murder, madness and reincarnation. Not suitable for under 16s.
Trains: Tube/BR: Waterloo 
Phone: 0207922 2922
Website: www.youngvic.org
Road to ruin: Quirijin de Lang (Pete Dayton) and Valerie MacCarthy (Renee/Alice)
It's certainly not Madam Butterfly — which is why Olga Neuwirth’s Lost Highway is playing not at the Coliseum but at the Young Vic. In fact it is the first of two co-productions between ENO and the Young Vic, enabling the former both to grapple with some cutting-edge multi-media work and to attract the “buzzy” young crowd widely deemed to be the salvation of opera.
Lost Highway is based on the 1997 David Lynch film and endeavours to recreate the surreal, lurid, raunchy world of that psychological thriller. Fusing video, dialogue and music, both live (a 27-piece ensemble ably conducted by Baldur Brönnimann and pre-recorded electronics), Neuwirth captures the menace lurking round every corner.
The plot, weaving reality and fantasy, sometimes confuses the characters as much as the audience. The condition they are suffering from is described by Lynch as a “psychogenic fugue”: a state so traumatic that they assume another identity to escape.
Diane Paulus’s production, designed by Riccardo Hernandez, locates the action either on a highway running right across the stage or in a glass-fronted apartment, its floors linked by a spiral staircase. Complementing this is the nightmarish video work of Philip Bussmann, its shapes and characters constantly morphing, projected on four screens above the audience seated in the round.
One of the many explicit sex scenes deploys the instrumental forces to fine effect — a mouth organ making an eloquent contribution. Elsewhere the musical substance is thinner than the visuals. Neuwirth’s word-setting leaves something to be desired too: the banality of the sung phrases is matched only by that of the libretto (by Elfriede Jelinek and Neuwirth herself). A good deal, however, is spoken by actors to better effect.
Of the singers, Valerie MacCarthy (Renée/Alice) was outstanding. But it will be difficult to forget David Moss’s assault on a biker caught smoking in a garage. Firing off volleys of plosives and falsetto screams, he floors the offender with his virtuoso delivery.
Until 11 April, 0871 911 0200.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
"to attract the “buzzy” young crowd widely deemed to be the salvation of opera"
Memo to the marketing geniuses who think this:
Fine, the "buzzy" people will venture to Southwark to hear stuff like this, largely based on the film, but *shock* it's a minuscule portion of what an opera season at ENO or the ROH is; unless those "buzzy" types show up for "Butterfly" and "Semele" and "Il Trovatore" etc., it's just a bump in attendance, not an audience building exercise of any value.
And ENO? Instead of wasting your time with this tosh (note: I love contemporary opera, but think Neurwith's piece is very weak), why not use the money for this and the "Punch and Judy" to pull Birtwistle's "The Mask of Orpheus" out of mothballs, if you haven't destroyed the sets already. It surely can't have escaped the notice of the bean-counters in your organization that the 8 performances did great box office 22 years ago.
- Henry Holland, Los Angeles, USA
