The Importance of Being Earnest – review

Barbican, LondonGerald Barry's last full-length opera, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, was based upon a screenplay. His latest, first performed last year in Los Angeles and brought to Europe for concert performances with Thomas Adès conducting Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, is based on one of the most iconic texts in English. It doesn't just sidestep the question of what's gained by turning Wilde's play into an opera – it tramples it underfoot.Barry may have cut the text of Wilde's ...

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