★★★★☆
The joke was that British Youth Opera, the final launch pad for opera singers before they try their luck on the professional stage, was dealing with a vanishing programme rather than a vanishing bridegroom (there had been a mishap with the printers). As it celebrates its 30th anniversary, however, BYO should be thinking about its vanishing audience. Increasingly it seems as if the company’s short season is being attended only by scattered clumps of industry professionals or friends and family of the performers.
That’s a pity because this production of Judith Weir’s 1990 opera has a salty, soulful energy; it’s a great introduction to opera, in fact. For whether it’s in opera, orchestral or chamber repertory, the master of the Queen’s music excels at