... type of performer. But this company had much of the necessary flair. Bryan Drake and Michael Follis had both the singing and speaking voices and the authoritative person alities for the gods Jove and Vulcan, whose intervention in the action as Squires Allworthy ...

... setting by Bruno Santini. The cast, too, showed much elegant competence in this company's characteristic easy blend of singing, speaking and acting. Nan Christie reveals an agreeable self-possessed lightness of touch in trying to make the title-role seem credible ...

... has directed it with a nice feeling of spaciousness and his cast are prepared to act out and speak clearly; indeed, this company produces some of the best speaking I have heard on the stage for a long time. Nicholas Smith as the insensi tive Councillor Higgins ...

... convincingly foppish, smooth-toned Dance Master But perhaps outshin ing them all was the ineffably superior, perfectly enunciated speaking voice of Paul Hansard as the Major Domo. Anthony Merryn ...

... looks more like Agathe's maid than her cousin. Everything was compensated for by superb casting, all the voices, singing or speaking, being excellent. Kurt Moll made a particularly impressive debut here as Caspar, singing with relaxed ease, power and magnificent ...

... rhythm, tempo, volume and mood, with first-class numbers like Don't Feel Sorry for the Fatted Calf'; Iris Grover's choral speaking was strong, dialogue a trifle banal, and some lyrics difficult to hear, but small amendments to the arrange ments would cure ...

... under-elevens extremely well; there was a neat introduction by Cyril Somers which explained the convention of singing rather than speaking lines, the register of the different voices, the background to the legend and something about the composer. Also, the necessity ...

... some unu sually clear characterisations, with Zerlina and Don Ottavio more prominent, balancing with the extrovert musically speaking Elvira and Donna Anna. But at the same time there is a loss with the character of Don Giovanni himself. Benjamin Luxon sings ...

... designs stripe bands of each colour as a brand across the others no-one here is genuinely what he or she seems. As far as the speaking of the uncut text is concerned, Joseph O'Conor as the duke. Kevin Stoney as Escalus and John Tordoff as Lucio are fair dealers; ...

... has never accosted women or girls might give rise to suspicion, but. given his retiring nature, the old man is probably speaking the truth. The root cause of all his unhappiness seems to be an arrested development when it comes to relationships with ...

... Something in the manner of the Janacek operas, the melodic line echoes and curves around the idea of a Shakespearean actor speaking the verse so that the musical tensions and resolutions are there already in the words and the score amplifies and extends ...

... while the new and more constant flame is played by Tammy Ustinov as Joyce. She presents a lower middle-class English girl speaking and thinking in that querulous way which suggests the fretful concern of a young woman in love with a content older man. ...