![]() ![]() She translates that feeling of claustrophobia to ancient Thebes in Handel’s Semele, where the eponymous heroine feels trapped by her father’s demands that she make a loveless marriage. To her, those skies represented a hemming in of her ambition, a paradoxical limitless horizon that gave no opportunity to move out into it. ![]() The never-ending slate-grey skies of her Port Talbot childhood form the backdrop for Adele Thomas’s debut production at Glyndebourne. ![]() There’s excellent support from soprano Victoria Simmonds as teacher Miss Watkins and baritone Nicholas Garrett as a scheming Flowerdew, the villain of the piece. Characters who mirror those originals turn up in Itch: spectacular Rebecca Bottone is the permanently angry boss of a dodgy energy company, Greencorps, and lyrical James Laing is an eco-conscious beach bum. Seasoned American baritone Eric Greene also makes a welcome debut at Holland Park, giving a tender portrayal of their father, Nicholas.ĭove’s hugely successful opera Flight (1998) features a coloratura soprano as a domineering air traffic controller and a mystical countertenor who wanders lost in an airport. It’s an exhilarating ride, one made all the more intense by the startling range of colour Dove extracts from just 12 members of the City of London Sinfonia wind, brass with percussion and a single violin, cello and bass, all tightly controlled by conductor Jessica Cottis.Ĭlean-toned tenor Adam Temple-Smith makes an impressive OHP debut as the irrepressible Itch, one half of a splendid daring duo with his kleptomaniac sister, Jack (bright soprano Natasha Agarwal). Dove’s pulsing, shimmering score imbues Middleton’s strong, direct libretto with a hectic urgency, pushing the narrative along, with only rare moments of traditional operatic introspection. ![]()
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