Pantomime is meant to be silly and perhaps superficial, but fun. One does not (for example) join an audience for Cinderella to be driven into deep contemplation of life, morality and the cultural roots of human duty. But that is what happened to me last Saturday afternoon while watching the most marvellous performance at Nevill Holt of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo (‘Cinderella, or Goodness Triumphant’).
When I was a youth, nearly 60 years ago, there was a more freewheeling attitude to sin
It was certainly fun, it was beautifully directed, played and sung, and Nevill Holt (my first time there) is out of this world: in the rolling Leicestershire countryside, the setting is stunning, the gardens lovely and the ambience smart and stylish, but without that hint of class anxiety that can sometimes set one’s teeth on edge at Glyndebourne. This opera is wonderfully silly – and the genius of Saturday’s production was that they camped up the silliness.
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