FIRST NIGHT REVIEW

Opera: Béatrice et Bénédict at Glyndebourne

Laurent Pelly’s production conveys that quintessentially Gallic combination of exaggerated romanticism and debunking humour
Paul Appleby as Bénédict and Stéphanie d’Oustrac as Béatrice in Laurent Pelly’s staging of Berlioz’s opera
Paul Appleby as Bénédict and Stéphanie d’Oustrac as Béatrice in Laurent Pelly’s staging of Berlioz’s opera
DONALD COOPER

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★★★★☆
Congratulations to Glyndebourne for staging two Shakespeare operas in this 400th anniversary year (Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is still to come), when the National Theatre isn’t opening a single new Shakespeare production. That perverse oversight would have horrified Hector Berlioz, who revered Shakespeare — although his adulation clearly didn’t stop him from thinking that Much Ado About Nothing had too much ado about nothing. When the Frenchman turned it into an opera with dialogue in 1862, towards the end of his life, he cut most of the plot.

What remains is a wry depiction of the volatile love-war relationship between Béatrice and Bénédict, set to exquisitely lyrical music laced with irresistible rhythmic verve and garnished by Berlioz’s characterful instrumental touches, including a prominent