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The Visionary Production Glyndebourne's first production of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, directed by William Kentridge, is a visually stunning and musically exhilarating performance that explores the power of music and art. The set, designed by Sabine Theunissen, is rooted in an artist's studio and features a mix of three-dimensional objects and cartoonishly 2D or purely symbolic elements. The Visual Spectacle The production is overwhelmed with visual elements, including animated charcoal drawings, annotated archive documents, and fragmentary phrases projected onto the back wall of the stage. The cumulative effect is overwhelming, particularly if you want to read the surtitles. Some may find the visual busyness frustrating, its symbolism gnomic. The Musical Performance Musically, there is a similarly hell-for-leather quality to the performance. Under conductor Jonathan Cohen, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment turned up the bass with its substantial, deep-pile continuo section and provided sympathetic, characteristically stylish light and shade. The chorus provided a lusty, finely blended gaggle of nymphs, shepherds and spirits. The Cast Highlights As Orpheus himself, Krystian Adam is a kind of straw-boatered colonial figure, vocally at his best as he pleads with Charon. Among the rest of the large cast, excellent diction and stylish ornamentation came as standard, with particularly charismatic turns from Hugo Herman-Wilson and Henna Mun. Xenia Puskarz Thomas's Messenger is fearless and almost raw in her mezzo's arresting power. As Musica and Euridice, Francesca Aspromonte is all laser-focused vocal beauty as well as a compelling dramatic presence. The Future Outlook The production runs at Glyndebourne, Sussex until 25 July. This visually stunning and musically exhilarating performance is not to be missed.

The Lead Glyndebourne has staged its first-ever production of Claudio Monteverdi's 1607 opera L'Orfeo, directed by William Kentridge. The opera is about the power of music and art to construct the world. Kentridge's Vision for L'Orfeo Monteverdi called his work – composed for performance at the ducal court of Mantua, a “favola in musica – legend in music”. “Monteverdi was a genius,” says conductor Jonathan Cohen. “The piece is about the world’s most famous musician. He begins with a prologue where he has the allegorical character of La Musica [Music, here sung by Francesca Aspromonte, who also sings Eurydice in this production], who says ‘I am music, and I have the power to stop the birds singing, the power over nature.’ And of course Orfeo, the musician, has the power to control even the rocks, the trees, the animals and effect human emotions.” The Power of La Musica Kentridge’s staging centres on the creative figure of La Musica. “La Musica leads the prologue, and, as it were, conjures the whole opera into being. The production proposes the idea of la Musica as the power of art, she is in the guise of an artist in their studio, who paints the sets, paints the thoughts as they are happening. The visual language of both the scenography, an artist studio, but also the images in the projections are part of what the artist is drawing. The trees, the landscape, the underworld, which I’ve done largely as charcoal drawings, either in a notebook or on larger sheets of paper.” The Artistic Vision Rather than a lyre Orpheus has the notebook of the poet. All his songs come from the book he holds, as if his instrument. The Production The artist’s studio set is a mixture of a Bauhaus studio with elements that are in Kentridge’s own studio in Johannesburg – and were shipped over from South Africa. Video projections – all drawn by him – transform the stage into many different spaces.