| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 30-Mar-2013 Staatsoper | New Britten production in Hamburg: Gloriana as a village pageant |
 British director Richard Jones is well known for his bold, modern and often controversial takes on operatic repertoire. So I was very curious to see what surprising ideas he would come up with in directing Britten’s rarely performed opera Gloriana, originally composed in honour of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. 60 years on, this new production opened on 24 March at the Hamburg State Opera, and will travel to the Royal Opera House in June.
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| 17-Sep-2012 The London Coliseum | Surrealism in the opera house: Martinů's Julietta at ENO |
 For a Parisian, the accordion is the musical instrument most redolent of memories and dreams. So for Bohuslav Martinů's surrealist opera Julietta, written in Paris and infused with a discombobulating jumble of memories and dreams, Antony McDonald's sets were masterpieces: in each of three acts, the stage is dominated by a giant accordion which is more or less the size of the whole stage.Read full review... | |
| 10-Feb-2012 The London Coliseum | Tales of Hoffmann at the ENO |
 Sir, Madam, do you like your opera quirky? A singing mechanical doll? A giant shaving mirror? The Evil Eye itself in a piano? Then welcome to the inebriated, fantastical, phantasmagorical world of E.T.A. Hoffmann, brought to you by Mr. Richard Jones with a delightful musical accompaniment by M. Jacques Offenbach.
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| 12-Nov-2011 National Theatre | A sobering Hoffmann |
 One of the questions this opera poses for any director is how to link the 'tales' of Hoffmann's three lost loves together and knit them satisfactorily into the Prologue and Epilogue. For this new production which travels to English National Opera next February, Richard Jones solves the puzzle by turning it into an autobiographical journey which ends with a grand meet-up of all the characters Hoffmann has encountered.
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