Double Trouble

Summer is settling in at the Royal Opera House, and David McVicar is flavour of the season. Following on from his tepidly-received Aida, Covent Garden are offering revivals of two of his most recent productions, and it’s not hard to see why he’s so popular. His sexed-up versions of the classics are sufficiently traditional in style to appeal to purists, yet alert enough to the social and interpersonal tensions of the drama to leave more adventurous opera-goers feeling refreshed. A perfect balance, in other words, for the most high-profile period of the year. His productions of Le Nozze di Figaro and Salome are a case in point. In the former - here updated to the 1830s, but otherwise conventional in form - the erotic and political conflicts are brought headily to the surface without ever disrupting the clear delineation of the narrative.…