Critical discourse

Liz Anderson 3:04pm

‘[Deborah] Warner’s command of the Coliseum’s wide stage is masterful, and she never overloads the action. More important, there is sincerity and warmth in abundance, and no cynical attempt to deconstruct or undermine [Messiah’s] message: this production is about the Christian message not directorial ego, and there’s room for everyone to take from it what they will…The excellent male soloists…have the edge over the female.’

 ‘To say that Deborah Warner, the director,has lost the plot is literally the case. Whether you believe in God or not, Handel’s Messiah indisputably tells the story of God’s intervention in human affairs. Take the big fella out of the tale and there’s nothing. But that’s exactly what Warner does.…She attempts to create a mundane contemporary world….in which extraordinary events can be made to seem plausible…Why cast a bass soloist who can’t sing “The Trumpet Shall Sound” in the right key? …Happier stuff from the women...’

Two reviews, two opposing views: the first by Rupert Christiansen in the Telegraph; the second by Richard Morrison in the Times. Who to believe? Well, I saw ENO’s production of Messiah the same night as the two critics, and am firmly in the Rupert camp. But Michael Tanner, whose review will appear in The Spectator on Thursday, is definitely in the Richard camp, writing that this Messiah ‘must rank high on the list’ of ‘most irritating evenings’ he has spent in the past dozen years.