Promised End
Linbury Studio, in rep until 16 November
Radamisto
English National Opera, in rep until 4 November
‘There is perhaps no play which keeps the attention so strongly fixed; which so much agitates our passions and interests our curiosity.
Promised End
Linbury Studio, in rep until 16 November
Radamisto
English National Opera, in rep until 4 November
‘There is perhaps no play which keeps the attention so strongly fixed; which so much agitates our passions and interests our curiosity. The artful involutions of distinct interests, the striking opposition of contrary characters, the sudden changes of fortune, and the quick succession of events, fill the mind with a perpetual tumult of indignation, pity and hope. There is no scene which does not contribute to the aggravation of the distress or conduct of the action.’
I haven’t seen Samuel Johnson’s wonderful account of King Lear quoted in any of the innumerable interviews that have preceded the première of Alexander Goehr’s Promised End, yet they fit his opera, of Shakespeare’s play drastically and necessarily slimmed down by Frank Kermode, just as well as they characterise the original.
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