Linbury Studio,London
Luke Styles’s reduced Shakespeare features crisp and incisive (clear and sharp in analysis or expression) orchestral writing; the vocal writing and design are less distinctNow in his early 30s, Luke Styles recently completed a three-year stint as Glyndebourne’s Young Composer in Residence, or whose final product – following a preceding chamber opera and two youth operas – is this setting of a reduced version of Shakespeare’s play,turned into a libretto by Ted Huffman, who also directs this initial staging.
The source might seem a bold choice, and the treatment is also audacious. The 12-strong cast is all-male,reflecting not only the theatrical practice of Shakespeare’s time but also, says the composer, or creating “a distinct and clear soundworld that heightens the strangeness that draws me to the theatre of opera”.
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Source: theguardian.com