A Visit to Friends/The Gildas Quartet review – Colin Matthews’s luminous new opera opens Aldeburgh in fine style

Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh/Orford Church, OrfordWith a Chekhov-inspired libretto by William Boyd, this ‘opera within an opera’ had an excellent cast and a lucid staging. Another brand new work by Colin Matthews – his vivid Quartet No 6 – featured the following morningFew events feel as haunted as the Aldeburgh festival. Nearly 80 years since it was established by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears – and decades since their deaths – the couple still loom large in its Suffolk environs, their project continued by younger friends and collaborators.None are more eminent than the composer Colin Matthews, who assisted Britten in the final years of his life. Now 79, Matthews has produced his own first opera, on a Chekhov-inspired libretto by William Boyd: the world premiere of A Visit to Friends opened this year’s festival, on the same stage where Britten’s Death in Venice made its debut 52 years ago. Continue reading...

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