Bajazet
by Antonio Vivaldi
Royal Opera House / Irish National Opera
Cast: James Laing / Niamh O’Sullivan / Claire Booth / Gianluca Margheri / Aoife Miskelly / Eric Jurenas
Conductor: Peter Whelan / Designer: Molly O’Cathain / Lighting Designer: Sinéad Wallace / Associate Director: Emma Woods / Fight Director: Kev McCurdy / Photographer: Kip Carroll
Nominated for the 2022 Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production
★★★★★ Opera Now
★★★★ Guardian
★★★★ The i
★★★★ Guardian
★★★★ The i
★★★★ The Stage
★★★★ Telegraph
★★★★ The Arts Review
★★★★ Telegraph
★★★★ The Arts Review
★★★★★ Culture Whisper
★★★★ Observer
★★★★ Times
★★★★ Observer
★★★★ Times
★★★★★ Irish Examiner
★★★★ Financial Times
★★★★ Bachtrack
★★★★ Financial Times
★★★★ Bachtrack
In terms of performances of opera from all periods, this was on the finest on a purely dramatic level I have attended, anywhere
★★★★★ Opera Now
It’s about outsize characters, extreme emotions and - in Adele Thomas’s gleefully physical direction - the pleasure of watching everyone on stage knocking seven bells out of each other in flashing coloratura. This was headlong, red-blooded fun
Spectator
Adele Thomas’s staging of Bajazet should finally silence those detractors of Vivaldi as an opera composer who are prone to complain that he was no dramatist. This was a no-holds-barred company debut, in a highly physical production bristling with action
Opera
Spectator
Adele Thomas’s staging of Bajazet should finally silence those detractors of Vivaldi as an opera composer who are prone to complain that he was no dramatist. This was a no-holds-barred company debut, in a highly physical production bristling with action
Opera
Its real power is in
its searing production by director Adele Thomas. It was an exhilarating
evening, the more so for being such an unanticipated pleasure. With more events
like this, Baroque opera could quickly come in from the cold margins and
reclaim its place in the limelight
Musical America
This earthy, sexy production grabs Vivaldi by the funny bone and delivers a deliciously over the top show full of bad boys, bad girls and wonderful singing
The Irish Independent
Musical America
This earthy, sexy production grabs Vivaldi by the funny bone and delivers a deliciously over the top show full of bad boys, bad girls and wonderful singing
The Irish Independent
Bajazet shows how much can be done
when opera is stripped back to bodies and voices making the most concentrated
and calculated of gestures. A bracing evening, and reminder of how much more
less really can be
Operawire
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In an electrifying production by Adele Thomas, the talented cast give such a musically and dramatically thrilling performance that it’s hard to remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much at the theatre
★★★★ Bachtrack