| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 5-Oct-2012 Royal Opera House: Linbury Studio Theatre | Brilliant but flawed: English Touring Opera's The Emperor of Atlantis | David Karlin |
 When Emperor Überall decrees an all-pervasive war that will result in the death of his whole population, Death takes umbrage at the fact that his job is being usurped and, in the mother of all demarcation disputes, goes on strike. Death, it turns out, is something of a stickler for procedure, refusing to take away his friend the Harlequin because his name isn’t on the list yet; he and Harlequin coolly observe proceedings as soldiers are unable to kill each other, eventually forcing the Emperor to confront the nature of his regime and of war itself.
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| 16-Apr-2011 Leeds Grand Theatre | Opera North's 'Fidelio'- A Focus on Freedom | Laura Kate Wilson |
 The concept of freedom is at the heart of Opera North's current production of Fidelio. As soon as you open your programme, you are encouraged by the company's General Director Richard Mantle to consider Beethoven's only opera as having something to say about the struggle for liberty that has been taking place in the Middle East over the past few months.“Opera is perfectly placed to convey the personal experiences of individuals caught up in larger social or political events,” he writes, and it is easy to see why Fidelio, with its prison setting and eventual triumph of good over evil, lends itself particularly well to a comparison with contemporary global events.
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