Peter Hoare reviews
Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen; Sinfonietta
Lucy Crowe, Gerald Finley, et al; LSO/Simon Rattle (LSO Live)
Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence
Stéphane Degout, Barbara Hannigan, Peter Hoare, Samuel Boden, Gyula Orendt; Royal Opera House Orchestra/George Benjamin; dir. Katie Mitchell (Opus Arte, DVD)
Berlin Phil in scintillating form
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Katie Mitchell directs Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
Katie Mitchell’s ‘split-screen’ production of Lucia di Lammermoor opened to mixed reviews in 2016: some focusing on the drip of the plumbing in Vicki Mortimer’s scrupulous reconstruction of a Victorian bathroom; some on over-crowding issues in the grand set pieces for chorus and principals; some on the intrusive manifestations of the ghosts of the Lammermuir girl and Lucia’s mother. The staging is over-stuffed but it is not stupid or careless.