Preview: Betrothal in a Monastery, Glyndebourne, East Sussex
By Michael Church
Published: 20 July 2006

Based on Sheridan’s comedy The Duenna, Prokofiev’s opera Betrothal in a Monastery was described by Shostakovich as one of his “most radiant and buoyant” works. Yet it was composed in the dark days of the Second World War: good therapy, but at the same time reflecting sinister undercurrents.

For Daniel Slater, who with Robert Innes Hopkins is sharing responsibility for staging it at Glyndebourne – Slater is billed as “director/designer”, Hopkins as “designer/director” – those undercurrents are of the essence. “Some bits which you could play as funny, we are doing dark,” Slater says.

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and the review

Betrothal in a Monastery, Glyndebourne, East Sussex fourstar By Edward Seckerson Published: 26 July 2006