Music Theatre Wales - Punch and Judy
- By:
- Harrison Birtwistle, conducted by Michael Rafferty
- Management:
- Music Theatre Wales
- Director:
- Michael McCarthy. Conductor: Michael Rafferty
- Design:
- Simon Banham
- Lighting:
- Ace McCarron
Production information can change over the run of the show.
When Sir Harrison Birtwistle's first opera was premiered at Aldeburgh in 1968, Benjamin Britten is said to have walked out. Even now, this characteristic Birtwistle amalgam of ritual, folk tale, straight down the line modernism and violence seems uncompromising, but therein lies its strength. With a score influenced by Stravinsky but already sounding, in its gritty directness and tormented lyricism, very much like the Birtwistle of later years, and a brilliant libretto by Stephen Pruslin that moves elements of the familiar Punch and Judy show around within a text that makes reference to dozens of other operas, we surely have one of the classics of its period...
Run sheet
- Royal Opera House, Linbury Studio London
- March 17 , 19-20
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