Well, the nominations for the Olivier Awards have been announced and there’s a surprise in the Opera category, with the inclusion of Pelleas and Melisande as Best New Production. While I didn’t hate it as much as some people did, I would never have put it there (or La fille du regiment either). Here are the nominations:
Best New Production: La fille du regiment, Agrippina, Turn of the Screw, Pelleas and Melisande
Outstanding Achievement in Opera: David McVicar for Agrippina and Turn of the Screw, Natalie Dessay for La fille du regiment, Gerald Finley for Pelleas, Angelika Kirchschlager for Pelleas
Finley and Kirchschlager are both real favourites of mine but I don’t think they deserve it for this production. I think my line-up would have been:
Best New Production: Agrippina, Turn of the Screw, Death in Venice (ENO), Gianni Schicchi (ROH)
Achievement: David McVicar, Deborah Warner (Death in Venice), Richard Jones (Gianni Schicchi), the RO’s revival of Katya Kabanova
A shame that Opera Holland Park doesn’t qualify or I’d have got L’amore dei Tre Re in there somewhere.
Anyone else have a view?
