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Opera

Unlikely to win converts: Royal Opera's L'Étoile reviewed

Plus: a second way not to do French operetta at St John’s Smith Square from Opera Danube who took on Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld

6 February 2016

9:00 AM

6 February 2016

9:00 AM

L’Étoile

Royal Opera House, in rep until 24 February

Orpheus in the Underworld

St John’s Smith Square

It’s widely agreed that the most difficult form of opera to bring off is operetta, whether of the Austro-German or the French tradition — interesting that the Italians wisely eschew the genre (so far as I know), while the British stay with G&S and their inviolable traditions, including the audience’s laughing in all the right places.

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