Alexander Joel’s fine conducting, sensitive to the ebb and flow of Verdi’s paragraphs and moulding them into potent enactments of human conflict, makes the strongest possible case for the work in

Therefore, with Alexander Joel’s conducting also being good, there is still much of merit in the evening. It just seems a shame that for a work that only comes to any of London’s major opera house

Thank goodness, then, for the heaven-sent singing, musicianship and saintly good natures of an outstanding cast, made to do daft things, and yet never less than brilliant.

Perhaps more important than individual performances was the terrific feeling of interaction between these, so that the duets and ensembles fair crackled, the dialogue gripped and flowed particularly t

The orchestra under the excellent English conductor Alexander Joel give an finely sensitive account of the music while the ENO has put together a terrific cast of singers who gave a magnificent perfor