<<  -- 3 --  Robert Anderson    MIRACLE FOR BOHEMIA!

Colin Davis, within days of his 75th birthday (I saw the performance on 10 September 2002), had a pleasantly autumnal view of the work, never more effective than when inducing cast and orchestra to the most ethereal of pps. Bruce Ford as Titus and the Vitellia of Barbara Frittoli had to outlast pages of forgiveness before ascending the imperial throne together with dignity and vocal assurance. They were handsomely backed in the convolutions of the plot by the rest of the cast, all of whom escaped the guillotine which loomed behind. I could make little of the sets, though admiring their simplicity.

The letters 'SPQR' are confined nowadays to the drain-covers of Rome. In this joint Dallas, Minnesota, Covent Garden production these symbols of the senate and Roman people were blazoned immense on a vast expanse of wall, while the main street of the city was as full of holes as the Kensington High Street of today. Why any passing Roman should bow profoundly to the letters of his constitutional freedom rather than to some state deity, and why the letters should be smashed to bits during the interval until they disappeared for the most part in Act 2 was quite beyond me.