Of all Shakespeare’s plays, the problematic Taming of the Shrew lends itself to tongue-in-cheek adaptations. Already a play-within-a-play in the original version, framing Shakespeare’s account of the shrewish Kate and her borderline-abusive Petruchio with a backstage broken romance ratchets up a notch the already absurdly charged sexual tension.
opera
Romeo Castellucci at Brussels’ La Monnaie (De Munt in Dutch) opera house takes a real-life sufferer of locked-in syndrome and turns her into the protagonist of Ophee et Eurydice (adapted by Hector Berlioz from Gluck).
The Passenger English National Opera (until 25 October) Yes it is shocking to set an opera in Auschwitz. It shouldn’t work. But it does. David Pountney’s startling production of Mieczylaw Weinberg’s 1968 The Passenger breaks new ground.
The Welsh National Opera version of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, established in the 70s by director Joachim Herz, on the basis of meticulous research, and now directed by Sarah Crisp, delivers pure emotion with devastating directness.
By Barbara Lewis • music, opera, theatre, year 2017 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, music, opera, theatre