Could ENO Actually Have A Hit On Its Hands?

After years of absorbing seemingly endless criticism of its mission, its management, and its music, English National Opera may finally have scored a win with London’s famously combative critics. A new staging of Monteverdi’s Orfeo is “a magical mix of East and West which in no way impinges on the earthy drama of the score in all its filigree detail. The interaction of dance and music is, if anything, enhanced by their hieratic gestures, mirrored by the principals in more than usually convincing style.”