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Opera

Is there a funnier opera than Gerald Barry’s Importance of Being Earnest?

An anarchic musical cut-up of Wilde’s play that’s dangerously hilarious is revived at the Barbican Theatre

9 April 2016

9:00 AM

9 April 2016

9:00 AM

The Importance of Being Earnest

Barbican

Comic opera is no laughing matter. Seriously, when was the last time you laughed out loud in the opera house? The vocal slapstick of Gianni Schicchi, laid on six banana skins deep? The farcical plot convulsions of Il barbiere? What about the arrival of Mozart’s ‘Albanians’ in Così? (Oh, those moustaches! Oh, those naughty boys!) It’s all about as spontaneous as a health-and-safety briefing, and almost as funny.

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