Madam, - I read your music critic's reviews of both La Traviata and Imeneo, presented at the Gaiety Theatre by Opera Ireland. Mr Dervan slaughtered the setting and production of La Traviata but was less unkind about the same aspects of Imeneo.
I am therefore very glad I missed La Traviata because the non-musical aspects of Imeneo were quite dreadful. The audience was left, for most of the evening, gazing at an unsightly stage containing a couple of timber benches, some cheap plastic stacking-chairs and a ladder or two. Over this unprepossessing area moved the unfortunate performers, wearing scruffy, modern, everyday clothes.
How this was calculated to be the best setting for on 18th-century serenata based on an ancient Greek romantic story is beyond me. One can only dimly speculate about the intellectual or aesthetic agenda which brought about this disaster.
When I go to this kind of opera, besides the music I expect something to delight the eye and stir the imagination. In the event, I was obliged to avert my eyes from the stage as much as possible and just concentrate on the excellent music and singing.
The beautiful setting and appropriate costumes grudgingly granted to us for the last 15 minutes or so of the performance served only to rub salt in our wounded sensibilities. It reminded us how fine it might all have been. - Yours, etc,
COLIN BRENNAN, Nutley Square, Dublin 4.