The solo performances are uniformly strong, with Hilary Summers's majestic Miss Prism and Ida Falk Winland's stratospherically inclined Cecily outstanding among an excellent team. Meanwhile, the orchestra – the Britten Sinfonia, crisply conducted by Tim Murray – occasionally takes off on excursions of its own that seem to have nothing to do with what precedes or succeeds them, detached from their dramatic context. Manically energetic, the result both subverts and celebrates Wilde's text, as well as the genre of opera.
Bass/baritone Andri Björn Róbertsson brings real pathos to the tormented Craftsman
Andri Björn Róbertsson...compelling as the Craftsman.
The singers were superb throughout, all acting as well as they sang ... the Icelandic bass-baritone Andri Björn Róbertsson was imposing and dangerous in both operas.
...their interactions suddenly interrupted by the soliloquy of the mysterious Hunter Gracchus (sung with poise and gravitas by Andri Björn Róbertsson)