It is a wonderful thing to have the inadvertently selective seats of an Opera performance made available and potentially appealing to a general audience. The availability side of things has been tackled by the Arcola’s Grimeborn Festival, which for nine years has been opening its doors to a wide range of more experimental Opera shows for a refreshingly accessible price. The appealing side has to then be ingeniously approached by the varied selection of Opera makers using the Arcola’s studio spaces, the performers and their wits as vessels. With a performance of Richard Strauss’s Daphne (and a libretto written by Joseph Gregor), it is Jose Gandia as the director and conductor that puts on an enjoyable but in no way extraordinary performance that I have had the chance to see.
Daphne – Richard Strauss – Opera at Home – Grimeborn – The Arcola – 20th August 2015
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