The Guardian
Alfred Hickling, Monday December 24 2007
5 star review
Pinocchio makes such an ideal subject for operatic treatment it seems a wonder that no one has tried it before. It's irrational, wild, driven by magic and if we are to believe that a block of wood may live and breathe, then why shouldn't it sing? Yet new opera commissions are rare, and full-scale operas written to appeal to children are even rarer: which is why this project, jointly commissioned by Opera North, Chemnitz Opera and Sadler's Wells, is a brave and ambitious venture.
…the younger members of the audience seemed to be lapping it up. Children can be the hardest audience to capture, but also the most loyal when their attention has been won. When I ask seven-year-old Jack Richardson from Bradford to nominate his single favourite moment he responds without hesitation: "I liked it when the Cricket got squished!"
The Times
Richard Morrison, Wednesday 26 December 2007
5 star review
Tidings of great joy: a Christmas miracle in Leeds! A modern composer has produced a new opera that is funny, poignant, tuneful, spectacular – and, best of all, stunningly conceived for all the family. To find an opera house full of eight-year-olds, held spellbound throughout a show lasting nearly three hours, is rare enough. To find that discerning adults – and yes, even grizzled old critics – are also grinning from ear to ear at the final curtain is pretty well unprecedented.
This must be Jonathan Dove’s finest hour. The Hackney-based composer has produced some entertaining community and youth-orientated shows over the past couple of decades. But with the help of a delightfully droll libretto from his long-time collaborator, Alasdair Middleton, he has turned Carlo Collodi’s classic fairytale into a surreal wonderland of music-theatre that leaves an indelible impression.
… Beg, borrow, steal or preferably buy a ticket.
The Independent
Lynne Walker, Thursday 27 December 2007
4 star review
"Make me, make me!" demanded Pinocchio of Jonathan Dove and, obeying his tapping inner voice, the composer did just that. With the writer Alasdair Middleton, he has fashioned an opera, which, from the glittering opening chord and the appearance on stage of a singing log, cannot fail to beguile young theatre-goers. At Opera North's world premiere of The Adventures of Pinocchio, the older audience was equally enthralled.
With a large cast covering the 27 named roles, there's huge scope for vivid characterisation – musically, dramatically and visually. There is nothing in the score that could possibly put off anyone for whom the words "new music" send shivers up the spine.
The Observer
Anthony Holden, Sunday 6 January 2008
From Leeds to the West End, let alone Broadway, is a long and winding road indeed. But such are the production values lavished by Opera North on Jonathan Dove's new work, The Adventures of Pinocchio, that the company seems to be reaching towards horizons beyond its usual Middle England touring circuit. In a piece with nearly 30 named characters, lasting almost three hours, Dove also appears to be aspiring towards music-theatre of iconic status, much in the manner of Stephen Sondheim. The result, a rare operatic treat for all the family, could indeed become a Christmas fixture.
… Bernstein and Britten, Adams and Glass, Janacek and Sibelius, Ravel and Stravinsky, Walton and Weill: the alphabet of obvious influences is lengthy … Dove’s version would make a much better movie than Disney’s…
The Sunday Times
Hugh Canning, Sunday 6 January 2008
… Opera North has done Dove, Middleton and Collodi proud with its magical staging by Martin Duncan, who makes the narrative as clear as possible and, helped by Francis O’Connor’s fantastical set and costume designs, provides visual treats aplenty. O’Connor’s basic set is a wooden interior hung with woodcutters’ tools and implements: huge saws and hatchets that lend a sinister framework to the action. Duncan and O’Connor are masters of transformation, however, and the 20 scene changes are deftly handled: most spectacular of all is the penultimate episode, Inside the Big Fish, in which Pinocchio and Geppetto are reunited. The stage of Leeds’s Grand Theatre teems with life in the big public scenes. The appearance of the Big Green Fisherman – a giant puppet manipulated by three men – was a coup de théâtre that provoked a frisson of awe.
The Independent on Sunday
Anna Picard, Sunday 6 January 2008
Energetically staged by Martin Duncan, lavishly dressed by designer Francis O'Connor, winningly sung by Victoria Simmonds (Pinocchio), Jonathan Summers (Geppetto), Mary Plazas (The Blue Fairy), Rebecca Bottone (Cricket), Mark Wilde (Cat), James Laing (Fox), Graeme Broadbent (Ringmaster) and Allan Clayton (Lampwick), and handsomely, if noisily, played by the Opera North orchestra under David Parry, each episode of the short-trousered anti-hero's adventures is studded with musical treats that melt in the mouth and the memory too.
The Sunday Telegraph
John Allison, Sunday 6 January 2008
5 star review
Opera North has spared nothing in giving Pinocchio a lavish staging. Martin Duncan’s lively production looks fabulous in Francis O’Connor’s imaginative sets and costumes. The wood-slatted set, the walls of which are decorated with Richard Scarryesque lexicon of wood-cutting tools, opens in every possible direction to make for fluid scene changes. Scenic highlights include the initial carving of Pinocchio, his extendable nose and his adventure in the belly of a big fish.