La Gioconda; Pulcinella; Iolanta
Opera Holland Park
On a hot fine evening in London there can’t be anywhere more delightful for an opera-lover than Opera Holland Park, which is now so comfortable, and has such high standards of performance, that to see a rarely performed work there is in all respects at least as enjoyable as it would be anywhere. The admirable policy of mixing conventional fare with rather out-of-the-way things seems to work well, since I get a strong impression that many of the audience go for the experience of being there, rather as one used to go to ‘the pictures’ once or twice a week, and hope something decent was on. I have hardly ever seen an empty seat.
This year there are two rarities, one of them a neglected near-masterpiece, the other a not sufficiently neglected piece of abject rubbish.
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