Michael Tanner

That Force of Destiny isn’t a great evening is the fault of Verdi not ENO

Plus: Wolf-Ferrari’s Le donne curiose is so good-natured as to be almost insipid, but this Guidhall School of Music and Drama production saves it

issue 14 November 2015
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  • The Force of Destiny

    English National Opera, in rep until 4 December

  • Le donne curiose

    Guildhall School of Music

The Force of Destiny, ENO’s latest offering to its ‘stakeholders’, as its audiences are now called thanks to Cressida Pollock, the new CEO, is perhaps Verdi’s most interesting failure. It’s an opera with too much fine, even magnificent, music to be neglected, but it doesn’t add up to a satisfactory experience.

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