★★★★☆
The people behind country-house opera are working hard to lose the “elitist” tag. Glyndebourne has long led the field in education and outreach work, but Garsington is coming up fast. Its new community opera, sadly staged for just three performances before the 150-odd schoolchildren and local people involved disappear on holiday, is a big leap forwards.
Jessica Duchen’s libretto is powerful and poetic and Roxanna Panufnik’s music busy and imaginative, but it’s the terrific panache of Karen Gillingham’s staging that really socks you between the eyes and ears. There’s a battle so loud, smoke-filled and realistic that you feel as if you have been pitched into the middle of the Iraq war, and family confrontations seared with tensions that many parents and children will