San Giovanni Battista – London

Opera by Alessandro Stradella. The first opera production in the new Milton Court Theatre at The Barbican, in a baroque double bill with The Cooper, for Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

DirectorRodula Gaitanou
Set & LightingSimon Corder
CostumeCordelia Chisholm
ChoreographerVictoria Newlyn
ConductorJulian Perkins

“The staging and lighting moved from the brightly lit froth of the first part to a dark, twilit world of perversion and gore. There is a lot to live up to in the experiences of contemporary listeners, given Richard Strauss’ almighty take on the story. There is plenty of power here, though. The excellence of the lighting really created the feel of a pagan, ancient World in which St John stoically sticks to his Christianist-God-with-a-capital-’G’ guns with fatal, and remarkably bloody, results… The staging of the death of St John was grizzly and effective.” – Colin Clarke, Seen and Heard International, 13 June 2014