Richard Bratby

Are we going to have to start taking Calixto Bieito seriously? ENO’s Carmen reviewed

Plus: Gerald Barry shreds Lewis Carroll's prose into verbal kedgeree in Alice's Adventures Under Ground at the Royal Opera House

issue 15 February 2020
  • Comments

  • Carmen

    Coliseum, in rep until 27 February

  • Alice’s Adventures Under Ground

    Royal Opera House

Calixto Bieito’s Carmen: three words to make an opera critic’s heart leap. Until quite recently, Bieito was the operatic provocateur of the century — the director who opened Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera with a row of men defecating on stage, and who presented Mozart with a side order of torture porn.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY A MONTH FREE
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Try a month of Britain’s best writing, absolutely free.

Read next

Trending

Steerpike

Senior Tory MPs and peers call for recognition of Palestine

Well, well, well. The conflict in the Middle East has caused splits among the Labour lot and now it seems serious divides are forming in the Conservative party over the issue. As reported by the Guardian, it transpires that more than a dozen senior Tory MPs and peers have broken ranks and written to Sir

Also in Music and Opera

Also by Richard Bratby

Latest

Comments

Join the debate, free for a month

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first month free.

Already a subscriber? Log in