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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
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Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
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Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Barry Millington's rating
Reader rating
Dir: James Conway, Tom Daley.
Cast: Donna Bateman (Rusalka), Fiona Kimm (Jezibaba), Camilla Roberts (Foreign Princess), Alex Ingram (cond), Richard Roberts (Prince)
Description: A chamber version of Dvorak's tale of a mermaid who risks everything for a love affair with a prince. Directed by James Conway and Tom Daley with Donna Bateman and Richard Roberts as the tragic couple. Sung in English.
Magic touch: Rusalka has dramatically credible performances
Dvorak’s touching opera concerns a water nymph, Rusalka, who longs to feel human emotions. Granted her wish, she quickly learns how love can be followed by betrayal. Her beloved prince desires the reverse journey and, abandoning the trappings of courtly life for the natural world, is dragged down to the watery depths by the nymph’s embrace.
To relocate the story to colonial Haiti may seem arbitrary, but James Conway’s sensitive production for ETO works because the culture in which it is set believes in magic and water spirits.
The other surprise was how well Dvorak’s score could be presented in chamber form: a virtuoso arrangement for 16 instrumentalists, alert to the original by Iain Farrington. Opera companies strapped for cash will come knocking. Donna Bateman and Richard Roberts were satisfactory as Rusalka and the prince, Fiona Kimm formidable as the witch-like Jezibaba. Alex Ingram conducted sympathetically. ETO needs to work harder to draw dramatically credible performances from its cast, but this Rusalka, in tandem with Peter Brook’s La Tragédie de Carmen, deserves to be seen.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
