The Sound of Silence: Christopher Wintle reports on the ‘Holländer’ at Longborough

Review of Der fliegende Holländer, directed Guthrie, conducted Negus, Longborough, 2018.

November 2018, Volume 12, Number 3, 86–7.

For critics, an opera production is simply a first-night offering. For performers, the first night is but an early stage in a process of becoming – perhaps only the second run-through. Plays and films have previews, operas do not: so the discussion between each rehearsal or performance of an opera can be as intense as the room for adjustment is small. For the critic, the ideal night may not be the first but the last; for the performer, the whole run can release ever-new possibilities – possibilities that deserve a report but not a review.