Friday, April 19

Tag: William Dudley

Witness For the Prosecution – London County Hall
30Sep By Caroline WorswickNo Comments
London

Witness For the Prosecution – London County Hall

‘Witness For the Prosecution’ started its life as a short story called ‘Traitor Hands’.  Agatha Christie herself thought the story wasn’t anything special, but her theatre producer Peter Saunders, thought he could develop the story into a courtroom drama for the stage.  Christie challenged him to adapt the story into a play and he took her up on it.  She dismissed his attempt but went ahead and wrote her own version which became one of her greatest achievements as a dramatist.  The play received its West End debut at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1953 and the following year opened on Broadway. The setting at the London County Hall could not be bettered for its authenticity.  The courtroom feel, fits perfectly with the play’s location at the Old Bailey, where the...
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Les Contes d’Hoffmann – Royal Opera House (2016 Revival Production)
14Oct By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Les Contes d’Hoffmann – Royal Opera House (2016 Revival Production)

Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann is the most enduring ‘serious’ opera from a composer better known for his operettas and this 2016 revival of legendary film director John Schlesinger’s sumptuous 1980 production provides the perfect vehicle in which Offenbach’s story – in turn witty, erotic, and macabre – and highly melodious music come together to form a deeply and satisfying whole. Set in the 19th C, the great storyteller Hoffmann (Vittorio Grigòlo) is losing himself to drink. His rival in love, Councillor Lindorf (Thomas Hampson), claims that Hoffmann knows nothing of the heart, and so goads Hoffmann into telling the tales of his three great loves – each destroyed by a villain who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lindorf… First Hoffmann tells of his infatuation for the mechani...
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