... 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. ...

... even when rolling with her on the floor, keeps the upper hand. There is a very striking Sempron- ius in Adam Bareham. who speaks particularly finely. Paul Hardwick is half bull in china shop and half on the way to trying to be the gentle man as Boanerges ...

... Another telling projection was John Winfield's absurdly fantastic Brazi lian, often explosively ludicrous in a high tenor speaking voice and a singing one full of sharp metallic polish needing only verbal audibility. Terry Jenkins and Ian Caddy were suave ...

... by the composer, who intends them all to be heard. Through 22 scenes, the words will be used in recitative, sprechgesang, speaking, chorus and in more conventional set-pieces, some of which point climactic moments with long musical speech. The only duet ...

... Collins are in Scenes from Soweto at the Round House Downstairs this week. Brian Croucher directs. BLANCHE MARVIN presents Speaking Hands, a novel entertainment in mime with Herbert Marvin and Michael Brojer, for lunchtime performances at the Rock Garden ...