ENO’s Queen of Spades: I wanted to grab David Alden’s production by the neck and shake out its silly clutter

The Queen of Spades

ENO, in rep until 2 July

Così fan tutte

Garsington Opera, in rep until 11 July

The opera director David Alden has never been one to tread the straight and narrow. Something kinky would emerge, I’m sure, even if he directed the Queen’s televised Christmas message. So matching him up at English National Opera with the madness, obsessions and phantasmagoria of Tchaikovsky’s whirring and troubling The Queen of Spades was simply asking for trouble.

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TaggedCosì fan tutte, David Alden, Douglas Boyd, Edward Gardner, Eno, Felicity Palmer, Garsington Opera, John Fulljames, Lesley Garrett, Mozart, Opera, Queen of Spades, Tchaikovsky

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ENO’s Queen of Spades: I wanted to grab David Alden’s production by the neck and shake out its silly clutter

Plus: John Fulljames new Cosi fan tutte for Garsington Opera feels like it’s been put together by someone with a very busy in-tray

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for $10