Tag: Opera Reviews

ENO La traviata Review – 28 October 2023 by Maxine Morse

The ENO’s La traviata has the feel of a Parisian 1920’s nightclub, enveloped in blacks and reds, with a cast in tuxedos and bob haircuts. The pared down staging puts the focus firmly on stand-out vocals, intense dramatic sequences and beautifully controlled conducting.

We are invited on a two-hour rollercoaster, taking a stomach-churning lurch to the highs of Violetta’s parties, where her inebriated frenemies are willing her downfall.  Then there is a slow dip into her life in the country while she pursues true love before our carriage goes through a dark tunnel when she rejects her lover before we reach a slithering halt in her failing health and death.

If you are accustomed to the many fin de siècle productions of La Traviata, with their stately homes and tulle ballgowns, you may find Johannes Leiacker’s set a challenge. Almost devoid of props and scenery, layers of red velvet curtains are tugged, drawn and pulled to create the various scene changes.

The delicious period feel is largely down to the chorus direction with its joyful goading and clenching of wine glasses at the party to the casino where the chorus purposefully stride across the stage and toss playing cards – minimalist but immensely effective.

The revival director, Ruth Knight gets to the heart of Verdi’s preoccupation with realism in her characterisation of the principal part. Violetta is not the archetypical fallen woman but an embodiment of mystique, power and angst brought down by her relationships with inferior, impotent men and seen through the narrow prism of societal constraints.

Nicole Chevalier brings strength to the role of Violetta with her glorious tsunami of raw emotions. By her final aria Addio del passato (‘It’s over, all those memories full of laughter’) she has lost her wig and her soulful lament is one that will haunt the audience long after the opera is over.

The antithesis of Violetta is her lover, Alfredo Germont (Jose Simerilla Romero). This beige-cardiganed, socially-awkward bookworm conveys all the personality of damp cardboard. Romero rises perfectly to this challenge by first seducing us with his febrile veneration of love and then blasting us with forceful vocals as he blames Violetta for shaming him.

Completing this dark triad is Alfredo Germont’s father. Giorgio Germont performed by Roland Wood is convincing in his display of oily, bourgeois respectability as he coaxes and cajoles Violetta to leave his son in order to protect the family’s reputation.

In the final scene, the supporting performers enter from the rear of the stalls and approach the stage to look on Violetta’s demise as if from the audience perspective – each one exuding a powerful  and almost frozen  presence.

Verdi’s score sparkles under the baton of Richard Farnes from the energy of brindisi with its insistent rhythms to the slower and perfectly controlled movements of the final death scene.

The director’s decision to forego an interval has the effect of asking the audience to drink a triple shot of absinthe…performing La traviata without a pause adds not only to the psychological intensity but also to the audience’s physiological discomfort. And when it ended no one leapt for the doors; instead, thundering applause and foot stamping brought the house down.

 

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Maxine Morse

Maxine trained as an opera critic on ENO Response the opera critics training scheme sponsored by the English National Opera and mentored by Critics’ Circle. She is currently taking live performance reviewing courses at the City Lit and Harvard University.

Please get in touch if you would like her to review opera for your publication.

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UNITED KINGDOM, LONDON
La traviata at the English National Opera.
Nicole Chevalier as Violetta, Jose Simerilla Romero as Alfredo and Roland Wood as Giorgio Germont in the Peter Konwitschny production of Verdi’s La traviata continuing the 2023 to 2024 season of the English National Opera at the London Colosseum. The opening night for ENO’s La traviata is on the 23 October with performances up until the 12th November.

 

ENO Iolanthe Review – 10 October 2023 by Maxine Morse

 

If ENO’s Iolanthe were a cake it would be a Unicorn cake with a deep buttercream icing and liberally covered with edible glitter and hundreds and thousands with a surprising layer of tongue tingling popping candy.

 

The director Cal McCrystal’s hallmarks are retro spectacle and masterly comic timing with splashes of whimsy and political satire. When combined with the unique talents of conductor Chris Hopkins, who takes a precision aim at delivering musical oomph, and Paul Brown, the Dior of costume and set design, the overall effect is nothing but a full-on sugar rush.

 

I am not a big fan of Gilbert and Sullivan’s prologues but Clive Mantle as Captain Shaw fluffed the audience with a good poking of fun at the opera going classes and a portent of fire-fighting silliness.

The late Paul Brown’s set resembles a 1950’s children’s book with its die cut wing and backdrops. The opera’s pièce de resistance is a life size steam locomotive which bursts through as if straight out of the comic golden age, unloading its cargo of crown and gown clad peers. Such was the stunning effect that I was sitting next to a world-weary television personality who broke the Coliseum’s strict ‘no photography’ rule and whipped his phone out to take a sneaky snap. Do not try this yourself!

Iolanthe has been banished from the fairy world for getting married to a mortal. Her son, a lowly Arcadian shepherd, falls in love with the equally vacuous, toile costumed Arcadian shepherdess, Phyllis. As ward of the chancery, she needs the permission of the Lord Chancellor to wed. Unfortunately, every dull, titled, money and status obsessed peer of the realm, including her guardian, is keen to wed her. Will she be allowed to marry her heart’s desire, or is she condemned to wed one of her less suited suitors? And what about those cute fairies who are besotted with those same dullards? Will they be allowed to live a life of wedded bliss or be condemned to death? We shall see…

 

Strephon (Marcus Farnsworth) the Arcadian shepherd has a touch of David Walliams about him, slightly obtuse and ditzy, a personality twin to the all-too-perfect Phyllis (Ellie Laugharne). Both carry the audience with their charming comical antics and deliberations.

John Savournin as the Lord Chancellor is a Gilbert and Sullivan stalwart. He excelled as Captain Corcoran in the ENO’s 2021/22 HMS Pinafore and is hot off the Opera Holland Park stage as Ruddigore’s Sir Despard Murgatroyd. Savournin, a confident performer with a conversational singing style, made a fast paced word salad of his tongue twisting Chancellor’s Nightmare.

 

Ruairi Bowen  as Earl Tolloller is a delight to watch as he delivers the crispest vocals of the night with masterly Victorian mannerisms.

The off libretto popping candy involved pooping horses, sheep ferried about by stage hands blinded by their camouflage and a shaggy-haired, partying Boris accompanied by a permanently surprised and gormless Michael Gove. A pot shot is taken at Nadine Dorries, who is responsible for the ENO’s current funding crisis, as she hilariously tries to break back in to the Houses of Parliament. And we loved the analogy of the Lord Chancellor having a terrifying nightmare that he had to move the Palace of Westminster to the frozen north as part of the government’s levelling up agenda. Perfect!

 

Did the Lord Chancellor’s page make it out of the performance physically unscathed?  He is bounced from place to place – falling, being clobbered and then dropped from a great height.  Give the marvellous Adam Bown his own one-man comedy show.

 

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Please check out our other reviews and if you are new to opera you may find these tips useful for your first visit.

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The ENO’s Iolanthe fairy world is a colourful pot pourri. Each fairy costume has been painstakingly designed to match the fairy’s unique personality – be that sexy and sultry, rotund and matronly or fun and impish. And the fairies stole our hearts. Petra Massey’s zip wire punching aerial antics have the charm of a Renaissance cherub. Bethan Langford as Leila exudes demure dimple-poking sweetness. The metal-clad, Wagneresque Queen of the Fairies, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, electrifies with a powerful performance embodying matriarchal warmth and strength. Samantha Price as Iolanthe brings her distinctive mezzo soprano and balletic moves to the titular role.

 

All in all, Iolanthe is a splendid frothy confection that will be voraciously devoured by both adults and children alike.

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Maxine Morse

Maxine trained as an opera critic on ENO Response the opera critics training scheme sponsored by the English National Opera and mentored by Critics’ Circle. She is currently taking live performance reviewing courses at the City Lit and Harvard University.

Please get in touch if you would like her to review opera for your publication.

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UNITED KINGDOM, LONDON
Iolanthe at the English National Opera.
Samantha Price as Iolanthe and John Savournin as the Lord Chancellor in  Iolanthe in the  Cal McCrystal production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta Iolanthe continuing the 2023 to 2024 season of the English National Opera at the London Colosseum. The opening night for ENO Iolanthe is on the 5 of October  and then 12 performances up until the 25th of October.

 

 

 

The ENO’s Peter Grimes is not going to be a cosy night at the opera. You can see that in the sparse cantilevered set – dark and gloomy. This will be harrowing viewing.

In a small gossipy fishing village on the English East Coast we find the brow-beaten Peter Grimes (Gwyn Hughes Jones) standing trial for the death of his apprentice. Grimes protests it was an unfortunate accident and Swallow (Clive Bayley), the prosecuting lawyer, forcefully disputes his account much to the delight of the baying crowd. Reluctantly acquitted, Grimes is clearly guilty in the court of public opinion.

Peter Grimes, the impoverished fisherman, is the Borough’s scapegoat. Neither likeable or dislikeable, he melds into his grimy and grey surroundings. But he has dreams. Conventional, keeping up with the Joneses dreams, of a wife, a house, a happy life and money. This will buy him status and an escape from exclusion.

 

Unable to work alone or pay for adult labour, he must fly in the face of Swallow’s advice by finding another apprentice to repair nets and help haul fish.

 

Ellen Orford (Elizabeth Llewellyn) longs to marry Grimes. He is not a catch but probably the best that a lonely widow can do. She convinces the Borough that she will nurture and safeguard any child procured for Grimes from the workhouse.

Grimes has spied a shoal of fish.  But a deadly storm is brewing. Grimes sees his chance as no other fishermen will be brave enough to net it. The boy is tired and terrified.

 

We can see this is not going to end well…

 

Elizabeth Llewellyn starts out scratchy and screechy, singing in the upper range of her register, mirroring her inner desperation. Her voice mellows into a powerful angst-ridden performance that propels us into her inner world of hopes and dreams that are constantly dashed like waves crashing on the shoreline.

 

Peter Grimes’s apprentice, Rudy Williams, with his animalistic hiding behaviours and mute writhing, perfectly conveys the sheer fright of being apprenticed to a potential murderer.

Set against the theme of social alienation is a Dickensian exploration into small town bigoted bloody mindedness. The hypocrisy of the village is laid bare.  The apothecary Ned Keene (Alex Otterburne) is not above supplying laudanum to the elderly Mrs Sedley (Anne-Marie Owens), a sleuthing Miss Marple who in turn, gleefully spreads unfounded gossip about Grimes in her drug fuelled haze.

 

Two pre-pubescent nieces (Cleo Lee-McGowan and Ava Dodd) who hopscotch dance and carry their dolls are sexual fodder for the sleazy fisherman and Methodist preacher Bob Boles (John Findon).

Their Auntie, a pub landlord (Christine Rice) prowls round the stage in her fur coat and walking stick. Rice’s forceful vocals make her the embodiment of female power in this male centric society.  She is after all the purveyor of sex and alcohol.

The chorus scenes shine bright. Mob rule at its best. The movement director, Maxine Braham, does a fine job of creating spectacle after spectacle…the crowd clench fists, clasp hands and punch the air…or dance a surreal country jig reinforcing the notion that this tightly knit community will be seeking their next victim when they have dispensed with Grimes.

Director David Alden creates a thrilling psychological spectacle. On occasions, he takes things too far. Would even the most despicable drunk sexually intimidate an elderly woman?

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Please check out our other reviews and if you are new to opera you may find these tips useful for your fist visit.

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It is rare to find an opera where the lighting plays such a pivotal role in evoking a menacing atmosphere. Lighting revival designer, Gary James, takes us from bleak seashore to dim workhouse, to cosy pub, to evening street party and then to Grimes’s solo dramatic soliloquy with its strong, almost incandescent, light and black shadows.

 

Gwyn Hughes Jones role is challenging. It calls for a socially inept man who yearns to rise to life’s challenges but is held back by lack of self belief. Hughes Jones slips into this role with apparent ease, neither singing too forcefully or too timidly. His voice convincingly conveys the twists and turns of his enigmatic situation.

Martyn Brabbins is a master of orchestral control.  He sweeps the audience up in the stormy, frothing sea, harbour bustle, misery and hopelessness. The orchestra came on stage for much-deserved applause during the curtain call. Their performance was the tour de force of the night.

 

We prayed hard and fervently for Grimes to reappear with his workhouse apprentice…simply a misunderstanding. Or for him to heed Ellen Orford’s plea to “Come home out of this dreadful night”.  Engulfed by his feelings of unworthiness and hopelessness, he is swayed by the devilish suggestion from Captain Balstrode (Simon Bailey) to take his boat out far from shore and sink it.

 

Who will be the Borough’s next victim?

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Maxine Morse

Maxine trained as an opera critic on ENO Response the opera critics training scheme sponsored by the English National Opera and mentored by Critics’ Circle. She is currently taking live performance reviewing courses at the City Lit and Harvard University.

Please get in touch if you would like her to review opera for your publication.

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UNITED KINGDOM, LONDON, 18th September 2023
ENO Peter Grimes at the English National Opera.
Gwen Hughes Jones as Peter Grimes in the David Alden production of Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes opening the 2023 to 2024 season of the English National Opera at the Colosseum. The opening night is on the 21st of September and then 8 performances up until the 11th of October.

The ENO has produced a sparkling revival of Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha to commence their 2021 Winter season at the London Coliseum. It follows Ghandi’s early career in South Africa and is part cirque du soleil, part mystical experience, part manifesto for radicals.

ENO Satyagraha 2021

A young Gandhi, a suited, suitcased lawyer, ejected from a first-class South African rail carriage sits in a heap besides the road. He depicts the struggles of the immigrant, subjected to small acts of everyday prejudice, shoved, pelted with debris and always being treated as “less than”.

Immigrants are the shoe shining underclasses who pander to the boorish Afrikaners; tattered, dusty, rusty and invisibly blending into the corrugated iron back drop of the set.

Gandhi turns to the holy scripture the Bhagavad-Gita, not to bear his lot, but to plan his movement. When you wage a war with weapons you don’t battle a faceless enemy, you kill your family, friends and neighbours who hold differing viewpoints. The author, Leo Tolstoy provides Gandhi with a formula for winning a revolution in “Letter to a Hindu”, you fight back with love.

Satyagraha means “insistence on truth”. It encompasses methods of passive resistance; the 240 mile Dandi Salt March in 1930 to protest the British imposed salt tax is enacted by peasants, farmers and urban labourers who swish the water with baskets to harvest salt. Gandhi galvanises his supporters with his newsletter, The Indian Opinion which rains on the stage like confetti. The crowds, with trepidation, burn their discriminatory Asian registration certificates in a fire pit.

The libretto (Phelim McDermott and Constance De Jong) is sung in Sanskrit without surtitles, rendering the performance more mime than opera with the Bhagavad-Gita acting as a philosophical and vocal backdrop. Gandhi’s (Sean Panikkar) vocals soar and dip in both hope and spiritual lament.

I had so many questions…some of them more pragmatic than artistic.

• How do you train an English performing chorus to sing in Sanskrit?
• How does Carolyn Kuan, in her debut performance, manage to conduct the obscurest of vocals?

And the questions kept on coming…

I implore you read a plot synopsis. Otherwise, you will spend the first interval queuing for a programme and playing speed-reading-catch-up instead of drinking a gin and tonic in the bar.

Maybe you struggle with non-linear plots and meditative eastern chanting is “all Greek to you”. Maybe you are a person like me! So why venture out on a cold, dark, autumnal night?

Go…this opera is a rare act of beauty, a spiritual tour de force with Glass’s signature minimalist music counterbalanced by a visually spectacular set filled to the rafters with aerialists, grotesque puppets and props crafted out of waste and humble materials.

Go…to be moved by the sheer pathos of a thin, wiry, magnetic man who faced injustice head on to start a movement which changed the world.

Satyagraha ENO – to book tickets go to the ENO website.

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Maxine Morse  wrote this review of Satyagraha as part of her opera critics training at the English National Opera. To see other reviews from her training see The Valkyrie, HMS Pinafore, The Handmaid’s Tale, Cosi Fan Tutte, The Cunning Little Vixen and La Boheme.

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HMS Pinafore is unashamedly the epitome of flag waving, English Englishness. I immediately sensed fish and chips, fairgrounds, childhood cut-out paper dolls and folk watching their Ps and Qs.

This 1878 comedy opera, aimed at satirising Victorian inept politicians and ridiculous social mores, has the audience rolling in their seats as the near-knuckle jokes reveals much about their own personal prejudices and proclivities.

HMS Pinafore Cast

So who is taking us on the HMS Pinafore voyage of discovery?

The faffing Captain Corcoran is well liked, despite having all the charisma of a soggy packet of crisps. John Savournin delightfully conveys this blustering ineptitude through his deep, well-modulated tones.

Welcome “his betters” – deluded, class-obsessed Sir Joseph Porter and the exceedingly well-heeled entourage of “his sisters and his cousins and his aunts”. Les Dennis, is a casting masterstroke…his arthritic hips don’t stop him clambering about the deck, chasing the captain’s daughter and sabotaging the carefully choreographed dance routines. He does a blissful job of “When I Was a Lad”. You can envisage him sweeping and polishing as an office junior and marvel at the cronyism that caused him to rise to First Lord of the Admiralty.

Hilary Summers, as Little Buttercup, cuts a matronly, common-sense figure with her fine voice and no-nonsense attitude. You do wonder how one so refined could have been involved in the deplorable profession of baby farming.

HMS Pinafore’s two lovers, Alexandra Oomens (Josephine, the Captain’s Daughter) and Elgan Llyr Thomas (Ralph Rackstraw) are beautifully melodic and hit the highest, highs of dramatic intensity and passion. And then there is a suitably, irritating tap-dancing cabin boy (Rufus Bateman) who masterfully gets into character and produces the desired effect, as I had a burning urge to get on stage to chastise him.

HMS Pinafore Directed for Laughs

Cal McCrystal directs this opera for laughs…a hunched, elderly, confused, stick bearing woman, dwarfed in acres of lime green netting stole the show by falling down a trap door. Boris Johnson, makes a hilarious entrance on a zip wire waving a Union Jack. And the blast of a firing canon wakes the odd audience member who had too much wine at the interval.

Masterly and Upbeat Conducting

Chris Hopkins conducts the orchestra with the energy that you would expect on the last night of the proms…upbeat, punchy, knee bobbing and seamlessly blending with the vocals.

Colourful Period Costumes Worthy of Hollywood

Period costumes by takis, colourful, voluminous and crinolined, turn a bleak sea of blue and white into scenes worthy of “The Greatest Showman”.

The set design has a whiff of extravagance…a huge vessel, rotating to reveal the top deck, the captain’s quarters and the ship exterior.

HMS Pinafore a Glorious and Sumptuous Spectacle

Finally, we must offer posthumous thanks to our fine Victorian composer and librettist, Gilbert and Sullivan who through plot twists and turns, avoid controversy by ensuring that each of our eminent Englishmen marries within his social class.

HMS Pinafore is a glorious and sumptuous spectacle that conveys a simple, almost Shakespearian message, that “all’s well that ends well”. Maybe HMS Pinafore is our rightful reward for surviving Brexit and the dark depths of the pandemic.

You may be interested in our other opera reviews.

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Maxine Morse  wrote this review of  HMS Pinafore as part of her opera critics training at the English National Opera. To see other reviews from her training see The Valkyrie,  Così Fan Tutte, The Handmaid’s Tale, Satyagraha, The Cunning Little Vixen and La Boheme.

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The Cunning Little Vixen (ENO) tells the tale of a sweet-natured, pointy-eared vixen entrapped by a forester for use as a children’s pet and who is later tied up in the back yard. On escaping, she reverts to her true nature by killing the cock, ravishing the hens and escaping back to the woodland to start a family. She is then killed by an oafish poacher from a neighbouring village.

On the surface, The Cunning Little Vixen (1924) by Leoš Janácek is a charming tale accompanied by the distinctive rhythm of Moravian folk songs but hidden within the plot are deeper allegorical significances.

We are confronted with the beauty of unbridled nature pitted against the moribund and decaying human world – a “four legs good, two legs bad” Orwellian allegory. Contrast the exuberance and free spiritedness of the woodland animals and the dull, dreary lives of the forester, priest and school master.

Sally Matthews sings the key soprano role of Sharp Eyes the Vixen. She successfully conveys the character’s sweet nature – coy, demure but her modest downward gazes mean that her voice is sometimes directed into the orchestra pit. Pumeza Matshikiza provides the perfect counterfoil as her paramour, the Fox. Pumeza’s voice is clear and colourful…any right-minded vixen would find her hard to resist.

Lester Lynch as the Forester, prowls and growls his way around the stage striking terror in his wake. He has a commanding vocal presence which fills the London Coliseum auditorium.

The best comic moments in the Cunning Little Vixen (ENO) stem from the opera’s anthropomorphism. Sharp Eyes describes her background and education as if on a first date and has the audience guffawing at mention of the mating activities of other creatures and when the forester sets a trap, Bright Eyes exclaims “Does he think we are fools?”.

Tom Scutt adopts a television studio set with props and storyline painted onto huge scrolls of paper to give vertical interest. The blackened stage provides a foil for the colourful animal, insect and fauna costumes. There are iridescent insects, metallic red-spotted toadstools and bridal chickens with perfect yellow patent shoes. Some costumes were less successful, a giant ball of fluff turned out to be a family dog and scurrying black-hatted creatures reminiscent of Victorian bobbies could be beetles.

Martyn Brabbins made light work of the conducting which was challenging as the music called for frequent loud and staccato percussion pieces that needed to be perfectly timed not to drown out the vocals. With this in mind it may have befitted the priest (Clive Bayley) and the School Master (Alan Oke) to project their voices more in Act Two to counterbalance the musical score.

And it’s a wrap…the poacher kills the vixen, the forester exits out of the studio back door…we run out of projector tape – it’s the end.

Jamie Manton, pulls the rabbit out of the hat, his direction of The Cunning Little Vixen  (ENO) makes for an exuberant production that relays a charming comic tale and gives something to chew over for those looking for deeper allegorical significance.

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Maxine Morse  wrote this review of the Cunning Little Vixen as part of her opera critics training at the English National Opera. To see other reviews from her mentoring see The Valkyrie, HMS Pinafore, The Handmaid’s Tale, Cosi Fan Tutte, Satyagraha and La Boheme.

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You would need to be quite disturbed to categorise Poul Ruders’ opera of The Handmaid’s Tale as entertainment but this performance nonetheless keeps the viewer transfixed throughout.

The Handmaid’s Tale ENO The Handmaid’s Tale, 22, Pumeza Matshikiza, Rhian Lois, Kate Lindsey © Catherine Ashmore

Based on the novel by Margaret Atwood, the opera depicts a future police state where women who have been living in sin, or who are in second marriages, are forced to act as surrogates for the childless leaders of the State of Gilead. Women are defined by their fertility and child bearing capabilities. Their emotions and actions are governed by a rule-bound theocracy.

The opera opens with Professor Pieixoto (Camille Cottin) explaining how the USA has been taken over by right-wing fundamentalists who have rolled back the progress and freedoms of women in early 21st century America. The discovery of a handmaid’s diary allows Offred’s (Kate Lindsey) story to be told. Camille Cotton seems lost – a slight, white-suited figure stranded on a podium…really, we want less chat so our dystopian nightmare can begin.

There is no sisterhood, no female fraternity, in Gilead. Aunt Lydia (Emma Bell) leads an indoctrination centre where the handmaids are stripped of everything that makes them human. We witness mental breakdowns, flashbacks and thoughts of escaping until the women enter a docile state and graduate.

The role of the handmaid is to act as a surrogate. Offred’s vocals convey the alarm, sadness and distress of her plight. She is held down by the wife (Avery Amereau) while her husband, The Commander (Robert Hayward) attempts to impregnate her. All erotic touching is strictly forbidden. Any transgressions are punished by the women being sent to work in a brothel, or to hard labour in the Colonies.

Annemarie Woods has designed a barren set encased by NHS hospital grade, green-grey curtains onto which grainy, celluloid films are shown of Offred’s previously happy life with her husband and child. The props of clinical apparatus and educational flip-charts evoke the birth control clinics of the 1960s. The red costumes of the handmaids represent nuns’ habits. Their uniformity makes it hard to distinguish between the opera cast. These are in direct contrast to the blue 1950’s frock of Serena Joy which is straight out of a 1950’s fashion magazine.

The music is scratchy and screechy with discordant percussion pieces punctuated by a few bars of Bach and Amazing Grace. The orchestra, conducted by Joana Carneiro, intentionally creates a background track to the action, rather than obviously supporting the voices. Ruders writes intentionally for the edge of what the performers’ voices can manage…their voices strain at the high notes which serves to underline that the inhabitants of the state of Gilead under continual strain.

Atwood is famed for having said that her novel contains nothing that hasn’t already happened in the world, or isn’t currently happening. Expect to be assaulted by historical and political allusions…the storming of the White House by Trump supporters, the rollback of women’s rights in Afghanistan, the separation of families by gun-toting soldiers which evoke the distressing, present day reality of the Ukrainian conflict.

Annilese Miskimmon (ENO Artistic Director) makes her debut as an opera director for the ENO with this performance. She should be commended for taking on such a challenging and feminist piece of work, although for some of us it left a bitter taste.

Performing The Handmaid’s Tale echoes the reasons why Holocaust education is considered important; to never forget, so we never repeat the mistakes of history. Human love, emotion and the things that make us human need to resist regulation by politics, education and organised religion.

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Maxine Morse  wrote this review of The Handmaid’s Tale as part of her opera critics training at the English National Opera. To see other reviews from her training see The Valkyrie, HMS Pinafore, Satyagraha, Cosi Fan Tutte, The Cunning Little Vixen and La Boheme.

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