FIRST NIGHT

Opera review: Dardanus at Hackney Empire, E8/Così fan tutte at Glyndebourne

Dardanus is set within a modern war zone
Dardanus is set within a modern war zone

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Dardanus
Hackney Empire, E8
★★★☆☆

Cosi fan tutte
Glyndebourne
★★★★☆

I can see why English Touring Opera has hitched Rameau’s Dardanus to Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Bach’s Mass in B minor for its autumn tour. Bach, Handel and Rameau are the holy trinity of Baroque music, born within two years of each other, though they never met. What a chance for ETO’s audiences to compare and contrast.

Well, on paper perhaps. In practice, Dardanus isn’t given a fair chance. Rameau’s operas were magnificent fusions of music, dance and spectacle. ETO has a reasonable stab at providing the first, but nobody in the cast can really dance, so the ballets (even the mighty chaconne at the end) are filled with inconsequential stage business.

And the spectacle?