DAVID RENTON is puzzled by an ambitious attempt to look back on world culture from the future without engaging with or understanding it
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This Figaro hits all the right notes
An excellent production that brings out all the class and gender issues as well as offering an impressive staging, writes JOHN GREEN
Alison Rose and the female members of the ENO Chorus
[Alastair Muir] 
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BRENT CUTLER unpicks the cryptic clues of a book within a book within a murder mystery
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GLENN BURGESS suggests that, despite his record in Spain, Orwell’s enduring commitment to socialist revolution underpins his late novels
The Marriage of Figaro
English National Opera
London
Mozart’s most revolutionary comic opera tackles traditional gender roles and class society. But packages it in scintillating orchestral writing and vocal fireworks. It is based on the play by Beaumarchais first performed in 1784. At the time the play was banned in Vienna due its subversive subject matter.
As a result of the ‘#MeToo’ movement, situations where wealthy and powerful men sexually harass women have become a key issue, so Mozart’s 200-year-old opera is as relevant as ever.
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