For most of the evening Mr. McVicar brought out the potent emotional content of an opera long thought to be lame because of the tendency of the Roman emperor Tito (Titus) to see good in everyone.
In the final act, a long dismal line of convicts trudges through the snow to exile in Siberia, singing, in the last lines of the opera: "The thoughts we think are so cheerless, and the guards we have so heartless".The opera retains its power to shock.
"Airline Icarus," by the composer Brian Current and the librettist Anton Piatigorsky, is a chamber opera about thoughts, fears and attractions among a group of passengers aboard an airplane that, as in the myth of Icarus, flies too close to the sun.
In the theatre, it used to be the prospect of an Olivier or Gielgud night or, in the opera world, the thought of a bravura display by Callas or Sutherland.
These, roughly speaking, are two prevalent schools of thought about opera.
(Bernard Holland) 'NORMA' (Friday and Monday) Two schools of thought about opera and drama go head to head tonight in the Met's revival of its John Copley production.
(Anthony Tommasini) 'NORMA' (Tonight and Monday) Two schools of thought about opera and drama go head to head in the Met's revival of its John Copley production.
Maurizio Benini, in the pit, represented a third, dated school of thought about opera: It holds that the conductor is the most important personage involved.
(Bernard Holland) 'NORMA' (Tonight and Monday) Two schools of thought about opera and drama go head to head tonight in the Met's revival of its John Copley production.
You've worked in opera – what are your thoughts on ENO posting losses of £2.2m and ACE considering a major shake up of the artform's funding?
