Maazel 1984 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London 11 May 2005

This take on Orwell's 1984 (Lorin Maazel couldnt get the rights to the libretti he'd have preferred to set) has received so much virulent antihype that the effect is hype - "no publicity is bad publicity" - as evidenced by the numerous reviews (listed below) assembled on the site of the indefatigable New Zealander, Michael Sinclair.

See also Gene Weingarten in Washington Post Sunday, February 16, 2003

I am on the phone with Robert Burrows, author of the recently published political novel Great American Parade. - - I tell Burrows that if he is willing to submit to an interview, I am willing to review his book at length in The Washington Post. The only catch, I said, is that I am going to say that it is, in my professional judgment, the worst novel ever published in the English language.

Silence.

"My review will reach 2 million people," I said.

"Okay," he said........

I have seen 1984 belatedly - one press seat in the stalls only supplied. Its neighbour, offered to Musical Pointers for purchase at £50, remained empty - not a good start for a night at the opera - or a musical. More usually, for prestigious opera productions there, we don't get any at all (q.v. "only a website").

So many thousands of words have been spilled on paper, and onto the web, about this hybrid creation ("rarely opera at all" "more musical than opera") that I will spare readers from many more.

By way of opinion, and in lieu of pouring more vitriol onto troubled waters, suffice it to excuse myself from venturing a detailed review because I opted not to remain for the second act, having been minded to depart already when the lights went up an hour or so into this hybrid show. A few punters headed for the exits (or was it the bar?) at that first opportunity, but were quickly hurried back to their seats by the opera house's red-clad "thought police", since it was not a proper interval.

The whole thing was inordinately long and leisurely, the text repetitious as a Handel oratorio (necessary cuts in the first act would have been easy) and the whole score turgid and unhelpful to the singers as to George Orwell.

To end with a positive comment, the set was impressive, a two-tier revolving structure, built of infinitely adaptable metal and see-through structures and making full use of Covent Garden's machinery, and there were some good stage pictures.

If the set belongs to the opera house, and not to Mr Maazel's own company, it could be a good basis for a composers' competition for a new opera or a musical (the Royal Opera might well decide to branch into musicals soon, as ENO and Opera North have done?).

Meanwhile, try to see a real musical at Chichester (Loesser's How to Succeed in Business without really trying) and hope that brilliant production makes it to London. And hooray that Opera Holland Park is shortly to open its season with Macbeth, which should look fine in their unpretentious semi-outdoor staging.

So I offer Musical Pointers readers quotes and a good read about opera in 2005 in The Opera Critic (http://www.theoperacritic.com/reviews.php?searchid=r60) the most comprehensive resource for opera reviews on the web, the quotes below introducing the numerous reviews to be found and compared there:-