Alexandra Coghlan

Royal Opera’s Orfeo, Roundhouse: shouts its agenda so loudly the music struggles to be heard

The space is underused, the dancing is distracting, the chorus underpowered, leaving Gyula Orendt’s Orfeo to carry much of the emotional core

issue 17 January 2015
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  • Orfeo

    Royal Opera, Camden Roundhouse, in rep until 24 January

What a week to stage an opera about art’s power to challenge institutional authority, oppression — even death itself. Orfeo’s weapon might be a lyre rather than a pen, but the metaphor is silhouetted clearly against the monochrome backdrop of the Royal Opera’s new production of Monteverdi’s opera.

Director Michael Boyd, former artistic director of the RSC, has taken a world of nymphs and shepherds and stripped it for conceptual parts.

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