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Friday 9 January 2009

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Shrewd survivor

Michael Tanner

Wednesday, 12th March 2008

Falstaff
WNO

Paradise Moscow
Royal Academy of Music

No problems of level afflict Shostakovich’s 1958 satire on Soviet housing schemes, Paradise Moscow, arranged by Gerard McBurney. The Royal Academy of Music’s production is the second I’ve seen, the first being Opera North’s some years back. Neither convinced me that the piece has much life in it. The comedy, which could easily be adapted to contemporary England and ‘affordable housing’, is laborious, and there are long stretches of spoken dialogue. The more practice singers can get in speaking dialogue the better, but so far the performers in this production haven’t made much progress. Nor do their singing voices suggest that they will be much in demand for Young Singers’ schemes at prestigious addresses. I’m not sure this musical has any capacity to entertain, but, if it has, on this occasion it was sadly unrealised.

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