... The Barber Of Seville RIVERSIDE BEAUMARCHAIS PLAY, upon which Rossini and others based operas, was not as overtly political as its successor in the trilogy but there was more than a touch of class-conscious satire in its story of wooing, winning and worsting. reier i\napp 5 auapiauon Keeps the Spanish locale but updates it to Franco's reign and the days when Britain retained an Empire. Our ...

... ENO THE ENGLISH National Opera revived A Night in Venice recently, but it is not one of their happiest offerings. The trouble with the work is twofold. First, the libretto is a feeble, unfunny concoction of threads of plots, getting nowhere: secondly the attempt to build an operetta with every number based on a dance rhythm leads to an inevitable monotonous surfeit, in spite of lively ...

... Eugene Onegin GLASGOW THE INTERVAL tattle about this, the first Glasgow performance of Onegin was that it was better than it had been in Edinburgh during the summer. Certainly, the overall impression of this Eugene Onegin was good. The evening was. however, not without its longeurs. The first hour was very long indeed; each character was laboriously introduced a musical cameo and a little ...

... The Gondoliers SADLERS WELLS ANOTHER D'Oyly Carte season at Sadler's Wells opened with another performance of The Gondoliers. The remarkable thing is that the work's perennial repetitions only serve to emphasise its evergreen quality Sullivan's music is still melodiously alive. Gilbert's Ivrics still attracting with pungency and rhyming ingenuity, even if plot, cha racterisation and ...

... The Long Voyage Home at the Cottesloe PETER HEPPLE REVIEWS WERE Eugene O'Neill writing today, it couid well be for television, on the evidence of the four short plays which are being presented at the Cottesloe under the title of the last of them, The Long Voyage Home. Here is the instant, skilful characterisation the TV medium demands; here also is the fairly simple plot, strong on human ...

... Cinderella ROYAL BALLET AT THEIR official debuts in the Royal Ballet's Cinderella at the Royal Opera House Marguerite Porter and Mark Silver gave well shaped interpretations, but there was not enough individual colouring of their characterisations to mark their performances as spectacular. Porter s great beauty almost hampered her in the scenes where she has to look down-trodden and ...

... Rananim CARDIFF THEATRICAL interest in that tortured, twisted literary genius D. H. Lawrence continues to grow, with the staging of and televising of his plays and stories, and the filming of his novels. The latest production by the Cardiff-based group Moving Being is another contribution to the ever-widening Lawrence cult. This 2'/4-hour show at the Sher man Arena Theatre, Cardiff was ...

... Ooh La La THE BUSH MIKE BRADWELL'S devised play, Ooh La La'!, with the Hull Truck Company at the Bush, is about dons and teachers and a couple of pupils. It is set in a North Country Uni versity town, and the talk is about revolution and democracy, pacifism and thought, novel writing and per sonal affairs. Songs are interpolated, also bits of piano playing, between the over-long series of ...

... Topsy Turvy PERTH PREMIERED at Perth Theatre, Charles Bell's musical play about Gilbert and Sullivan. Topsy Turvy, received a deservedly rapturous reception. Stage director Andrew McKinnon and musical director John Scrimger are backed by a company of eight actors and signers collaborating fully in the imagination and sparkle of the whole piece. The designer. Helen Wilkinson, takes a full ...

... The Nutcracker LONDON FESTIVAL BALLET THERE WAS a time when a visit to the Royal Festival Hall to see London Festival Ballet in The Nutcracker meant untold delights, and the fantasy world which is encapsulated would linger on in my mind for weeks. I loved the old production by David Lichine, when Clara was a little girl who stirred the imagination with her adventures, and the sight of her ...

... Adeline Genee Medal ROYAL ACADEMY OF DANCING PHYLLIS BEDELLS, Antoinette Sibley and Desmond Ketty were the judges for this year's Adeline Genee Medal Award of the Royal Academy of Dancing at Sadler's Wells, and in summing up they said that they had been disappointed with the overall standard. There were 18 candidates and the judges advised that they should apply themselves to more diligent ...

... The Force of Destiny ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA THE English National Opera made a greater impact with The Force of Destiny in their revival at the Coliseum on January 4 than when I last saw it nearly two years ago. The complicated story involving revenge, religion and war may straggle with its irrelevancies and imposed comic relief, but Verdi's music is masterly for all moods, and considerable ...