Page 20 - FINAL_Theatre of Sound Coverage Book

10 September 2021

C O M M E N T
Nicholas Kenyon – Opera needs to do more than

just the classics

The Telegraph's new opera critic outlines how the art form can come back from the brink

NICHOLAS KENYON

Glyndebourne's production of Brett Dean's Hamlet CREDIT: Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. /
ArenaPAL

What makes opera such a uniquely compelling art-form? There’s something scarily unattainable
about the number of elements that have to combine in harmony to make a truly great opera
performance – singing, playing, acting, direction, conducting, designs, lighting, the list is endles –
yet the raw emotional impact it can make when those elusive elements do cohere is overwhelming.

I had little idea what opera was when, as a schoolboy with a decent treble voice, I was thrust into
leading lady roles in Gilbert and Sullivan school productions. Those appearances in The Yeomen of
the Guard, Patience and Iolanthe led to an obsession with the art-form. I did walk-on parts as a
young teenager with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company when it came to Manchester for its hugely
popular seasons, and the experience of seeing a touring company mounting changing repertory
every night plus matinées was both exhilarating and alarming: this was dauntingly hard,
professional work.