Mozart through the looking-glass

For a generation brought up listening to opera on CD, it’s commonplace to say that the form is mainly about the music. After all, the stories of Il Trovatore or Die Zauberflöte would be unlikely to be remembered were it not for the power of the scores that underline them. Even the most talented director is hard-pressed to add dramatic tension to an opera such as Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise, and the vogue for concert performances would suggest that as audiences we are happy to dispense with theatricality and simply enjoy the composer’s music on its own terms.  At the same time, it’s refreshing to be reminded just how much an innovative production can galvanise and determine the musical dimensions of an operatic performance, lifting a potentially ordinary evening into the realms of something genuinely memorable. Jonathan Miller’s…