The Importance of Being Earnest - Royal Opera House, 14 June 2013 (first night)
Gerald Barry's comic masterpiece achieves two rare distinctions. Not just genuinely funny, it seems to be (rarer still) director-proof too. The Royal Opera House advertise this as the opera's "first UK staging". But with the orchestra on one side of the stage, a few plates of buns passing for scenery on the other, and the cast seemingly dressed in their own clothes, Ramin Grey's production has little to distinguish it from last year's Barbican concert version.
The Importance of Being Earnest - Barbican Hall, 26 April 2012
If I could pick just one ENO opera to revive, it would have to be Gerald Barry' s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant from 2005, an aural health hazard that taxed singers, orchestra and audience in equal measure and different ways. Detractors loathed the relentless volume and sonic density; fans identified a cogent sense of humour and a refreshing unwillingness to please wrapped up in a unique compositional voice.
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