Review: Alice’s Adventures Under Ground at Royal Opera House for a surreal operatic treat
On Tuesday night we raced up the stairs to the main auditorium at the Royal Opera House and slumped down in our seats two minutes before the curtains went up. While I was expecting the pace of our evening to change, I couldn’t be more wrong. Within the next hour we were taken on a madcap journey into Lewis Carroll’s surreal world of Alice, fast forwarding through Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Gerald Barry’s high-energy opera, directed and designed by Antony McDonald, sees Alice plunge down the rabbit hole into the depths of Wonderland, where she meets familiar colourful characters like the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Duchess and her ill-treated baby.
With superb costumes and a creative set, the opera is a delight to watch for young and old. I particularly liked the comical talking croquet invitation costumes, where heads were sticking out of the wax seals, and my seven-year-old plus one was in awe of the White and Red Knight’s horses on the chess board.
In addition to admiring the whimsical costumes, the witty dialogue had us chuckle with laughter, and I still giggle when being reminded of the jam joke about the rule being that jam is only for yesterday and tomorrow, but never for today. Other highlights were singing flowers and cakes, the recital of the poem Jabberwocky, stunning dance performances and the song Beautiful Soup, which I now have stuck in my mind.
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground is a musical treat, delivering a delightful mix of surreal characters, wacky costumes and silly dialogue in a whirlwind production that can make for a wonderful introduction to opera for London families with older children.
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground is playing at the Royal Opera House on 6 February 2020 at 7pm and 9.15pm, Saturday 8 February 2020 at 11.30am and 1.45am and Sunday 9 February 2020 at 12noon and 2.15pm. The running time is 55 minutes, and the majority is sung in English and there are also subtitles.
Photos by Clive Barda
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