CLASSICAL

Opera review: Vanessa at Glyndebourne

After decades of neglect, Samuel Barber’s Vanessa makes a dramatic entrance

The Sunday Times
Allure: Emma Bell and Edgaras Montvidas in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa
Allure: Emma Bell and Edgaras Montvidas in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa
TRISTRAM KENTON

The high-profile premiere of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in January 1958 for a time gave the work an excellent chance of establishing itself firmly in the repertoire. A Pulitzer prize, an immediate revival, a run in Salzburg (the first time any opera in English had been staged there) and touring productions were all good omens. Yet, despite occasional performances over the years, that never quite happened and so, remarkably, Glyndebourne’s new production represents the opera’s first professional staging in the UK, fully 60 years on.

Keith Warner’s impressive production and the committed performances here make this neglect seem strange. Its relative brevity (this 1964 revision comes in at less than two hours), its small cast — the chorus sings sporadically but