Julietta

Synopsis

Michel returns to a small coastal town to search for a girl he once heard singing. But the townspeople have lost their memories and Michel finds himself in a world where situations follow each other without cause or consequence. When he tries to leave he's told that the train he arrived on never existed.

Our Review:

18 September 2012

Director Richard Jones needs no prompting to create a hallucinatory dreamworld, stuffed full of exotic characters, fantastical situations and crocodiles.  He’s done it with many an opera but for Martinu’s Julietta he had only to adhere to the stage directions.  Based on Georges Neveux’s absurdist play Juliette ou La clé des songes, it’s the most surrealistic of the Czech composer’s 14 operas (if you don’t count Tears of the Knife, in which Satan rides a bicycle and disembodied arms and legs dance together).  Arguably it’s also the one most worthy of production. 

Jones’s staging, seen previously in Paris and Geneva, has now arrived in the UK, the first major production of a Martinu opera in London since Covent Garden’s Greek Passion was revived in 2004.  Julietta (or rather Juliette in the French version) was heard in concert at the Barbican ...

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Latest User Review

Philippa Mulcuck - 30 September 2012:

A brilliant production. Certainly one of the best productions I have seen ENO do. Well worth the visit! I thought the singing was wonderful, I loved the sets and I thought the way it all came together was sperb! A clever and ingenious set designer. ...

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