Bliss, Opera Australia, Edinburgh Festival Theatre | reviews, news & interviews
Bliss, Opera Australia, Edinburgh Festival Theatre
Bliss, Opera Australia, Edinburgh Festival Theatre
Hotly anticipated new Australian opera is hoist by its absurdly trendy Leftist petard
Monday, 06 September 2010
'The low was Peter Coleman-Wright's Harry, not unstable enough for a man enduring an earth-shattering mid-life crisis'
Here we go again. Art takes on capitalism, round 4,598,756. The blissful life of Harry Joy, ad exec extraordinaire, beloved father of two, is (surprise, surprise) not quite what it seems. His wife is having an affair, his daughter is fellating his son for drugs and his business clients are spreading cancer. He thinks he's in hell. But this ain't hell; it's the greedy, bourgeois reality of a capitalist West. Stalin would have been mighty proud of Australian Brett Dean's new opera, Bliss, which was receiving its European premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Here we go again. Art takes on capitalism, round 4,598,756. The blissful life of Harry Joy, ad exec extraordinaire, beloved father of two, is (surprise, surprise) not quite what it seems. His wife is having an affair, his daughter is fellating his son for drugs and his business clients are spreading cancer. He thinks he's in hell. But this ain't hell; it's the greedy, bourgeois reality of a capitalist West. Stalin would have been mighty proud of Australian Brett Dean's new opera, Bliss, which was receiving its European premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Bliss isn't the best opera to go to with anyone who knows anything about the real world
Share this article
more Opera
Rodelinda, The English Concert, Bicket, Saffron Hall review - perfect team helps us stay the long Handel course
Saffron Hall celebrates its 10th anniversary in the greatest possible style
Gazzaniga's Don Giovanni, Royal College of Music review - a modest one-acter overloaded
Good young singers get more opportunities than the actual work offers
Jephtha, Royal Opera review - uncomfortable sacrifice oratorio not seismic enough
Sobriety and darkness eclipse Handel's dramatic vividness, despite strong performances
theartsdesk at Wexford Festival Opera - four operas and a recital in one crazy day
Youth takes the comedy award in fringe delights alongside a well-done schlocky rarity
theartsdesk in Ukraine - Stankovych's 'Psalms of War' at the Lviv National Opera
A powerful new work written in blood from the inside
Un ballo in maschera, Chelsea Opera Group, Cadogan Hall review - Italianate vitality, if not much finesse
Broad brush strokes, but here was a world-class Verdi heroine in the making
La Rondine, Opera North review - rehabilitation for a Puccini damp squib?
The romantic nostalgia of a world that vanished forever
Masque of Might, Opera North review - a tale of ecological virtue
Pountney plunders Purcell to make the greenest show in a green season
Iolanthe, English National Opera review - still gorgeous but ever so slightly less funny than before
Not all the cast changes are gains in revival of Cal McCrystal's funny and beautiful G&S
Faust, Irish National Opera review - world-class singing turns the musical-dramatic screw
Fabulous principals and some good ideas to elevate Gounod's old-fashioned melodrama
Falstaff, Opera North review - going green and having fun
Verdi’s comic masterpiece with a retro feel of its own
First Person: Director Sir David Pountney on creating a new 'Masque of Might' from the music of Purcell
Launching Opera North’s Green Season with a climate sceptic as villain
Add comment