⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒ “The Buxton Festival has often been at its best when it has balanced high drama with comedy in its operatic offerings. This year it has wisely turned to Jeff Clarke and his Opera della Luna to provide the fun quotient. For Opera della Luna, adaptation is the name of the game. Clarke has not only got John Longstaff to reduce the score – the chorus is all male here, and three of the six of them double in other roles – but he’s rewritten the book completely.  It’s all great fun and very cleverly matches the essence of the original.”
Robert Beale MANCHESTER THEATRE AWARDS

“Opera della Luna’s Artistic Director certainly takes Donizetti’s “little opera” seriously: his production, first seen in 2014 and now slightly revised, treats the opera with a light and loving touch as it transfers the action from the nineteenth century Swiss Tyrol to the desert mountain ranges of California during the 1950s.  Jeff Clarke and the terrific cast gave us a joyful evening of sunny high spirits.  Once again Opera della Luna served up some seriously slick comedy.”
Claire Seymour OPERA TODAY
[non production specific review]

It seems fashionable these days for directors to contradict the score as a matter of form: how else can you explain Stefan Herheim’s utterly contrary production of Pelléas et Mélisande at Glyndebourne this summer, or indeed Barrie Kosky’s mess of a Carmen at the Royal Opera? Meanwhile, directors such as Jeff Clarke of Opera della Luna and Martin Lloyd-Evans at Holland Park barely get a look in at the major opera houses. I presume because their work tends to be the sort of thing that audiences actually want to see and enjoy.
Feedback OPERA NOW