What did you think?

Potent images that remain with me. This was the first opera experience I've had where I wasn't aware of the music as a separate entity. The music was my vehicle transporting me through the visual adventure. susan goldsmith

Thank you for bringing this important production to us. We found it disturbing, powerful and incredibly moving. Mary Deissler

I shall be seeing many more performances and I expect my enjoyment to be enhanced by repetition. Loved the music but was a little disconcerted by the significant role changes from the book, Josepha changing from villain to heroine and Abrenuncio an atheist mentioning God. However it was inevitable the complexities of the book could not survive the condensation. However having read the book did I think help me to follow the plot.

For a jolly South American opera, one would have to go to La Périchole. This new opera, which we saw at its second performance, by the Hungarian Peter Eötvös was seriously not jolly, but nevertheless made a deep impression, if only in trying to understand why what happened happened. Set in Spanish Columbia, a 12 year old girl is bitten by a dog. The people fear she has rabies and is possessed. She may not have rabies, but she gives every sign of being possessed and is most anxious not to surrender the Yoruba necklace a slave woman gives her. The church authorities send her to a convent, and detail a priest to interrogate and exorcise her. The priest falls under her spell, so the bishop and the Mother Superior have to ensure the exorcism is carried out, a practice somewhat fatal to the possessed. The music was approachable and understandable, and both lyrical and, at times, forceful. The vocal lines, though complicated, were not unattractive. The effect of this was not to drive one away from the storyline, which can often happen where the music is unmusical or plain boring. There was a strong cast led by Allison Bell as the girl. The role required a lot of high pitched shrieking which she amazingly always kept musical. A hairy chested Nathan Gunn played the priest, and their love duet was very touching - her long, red hair being straight out of Glyndebourne’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Felicity Palmer played the Abbess as though directed by Ken Russell; Jean Rigby was more sympathetic as the mad woman. The juxtaposition of superstition and Catholicism made for an interesting picnic-time debate, and one felt that the final working out of the story was not intended to portray the church in a favourable light, though the final stage picture of the girl walking into her tomb while her father looks on was somewhat confusing. The production was an interesting mix of ancient (walls decaying in the tropical humidity) and modern (a convent cell made out of scaffolding poles). However, it all seemed to work (though the headless peripatetic stature was a distraction), and the channel of fire and blood was interestingly effective. The work would repay a second viewing.

The piece starts with an eclipse of the sun, which causes consternation amongst the locals and slaves. After the eclipse the production remains relatively well lit until the love duet. During this the girl lets her shift drop, but with her long locks more or less maintains her modesty. However, a failure of stage lighting, or perhaps it was another eclipse, ensures that both the priest and the audience have difficulty in seeing what they should not see.

Robin I Morgan

In commissioning this exciting new work Glyndebourne shows beyond doubt that it’s a force to be reckoned with and this, together with its out-reach programme, does more than enough to prove that it’s a modern, forward-thinking institution with standards and values that raise the bar to a new level.

If you wanted to see a text book example of how to stage a new opera, this is it. A complex staging set the scene for two hours of profound drama; though much of it is slow in both action and music (sometimes to a degree which could make Parsifal and Bluebeard’s Castle look positively lively) the intensity of the music and the storyline ensure that this is a white knuckle ride.

Glyndebourne has yet again assembled a formidable cast – with Glyndebourne veterans Felicity Palmer and John Graham-Hall alongside some exceptional new talent, not least in the principal character, where you’ll struggle to hear a more demanding role executed with such precision. And the depth to which Maestro Jurowski delves into this uncompromising music is a testament to his extraordinary musicianship and insight into the work.

Four more performances still to go – don’t miss it!

Having read the reviews so far recorded I felt I must comment as those so far posted do not accord with my own experience and those of others I have spoken to about the performance (including some Glyndebourne staff). As a regular opera goer for over 30 years I left Glyndebourne after seeing Love and Other Demons with a great sense of disappointment. Not only for myself but also for the 6 under 30s I had taken to the performance - why did Glyndebourne chose this opera to sell itself to the under 30s - a major commercial error. I may be a philistine to most of your reviewers when I say that I expect an opera to in some way entertain me - whether it be through through the music the vocals or the story - I want to be moved emotionally. I have seen 100s of operas over the years and occassionally one leaves me disappointed in the way Peter Eotvos's opera did - a limited score well performed, excellent staging and well executed vocal gymnastics are in my view the only positive aspects of the production. This is an opera that will live short in my memory and which has to my knowledge discouraged 6 under 30s from trying opera again.