Smetana’s Libuše (UK premiere), 2019
University College Opera, The Bloomsbury Theatre, London
Conductor: Charles Peebles | Designer: Holly Muir | Lighting Designer: Alex Forey
“a show that gave some potentially portentous material lightness and humanity”
George Hall, Opera Magazine, June 2019
“Engaging, straightforward modern dress staging by Cecilia Stinton that makes perfect sense of a complex narrative based on a corpus of legend and myth largely unfamiliar outside the Czech Republic… Everyone says you have to know Czech folklore backwards to make sense of it. [Stinton] disproves that, once and for all. It's a very fine piece of work”
Tim Ashley, Guardian and Gramophone critic
“Cecilia Stinton’s ingenious modern-day corporate setting”
Guy Dammann, Times Literary Supplement
“Stirring #Libuse @UCOpera in enterprisingly timeless setting led by @orpheus_chick in resplendent regal performance”.
John Johnston, Bachtrack critic
“In Cecilia Stinton’s sensitive, well-choreographed production, the 8th-century palace of Vysehrad is reimagined as a corporate headquarters”
Anna Picard, The Times
“Director Cecilia Stinton updated the whole thing to a sort of Slavonic Canary Wharf, making Libuse's struggle a parable of female leadership in a male-dominated office. That allowed for some witty touches”.
Richard Bratby, The Spectator