Press

A selection of press comments

Albert Herring
“The performance was billed as semi-staged, but it was for more than that … Kenneth Richardson’s production was lively, inventive and sympathetic … This was a brilliant, characterful and very funny account of Britten’s opera. A fitting tribute to the composer on his centenary.”
Planet Hugill

“The special wonder of Kenneth Richardson’s Barbican semi-staging was how timeless this comedy remains.”
The Arts Desk

“The action, directed observantly by Kenneth Richardson”
The Guardian

“The action — this was not so much a semi-staging as a three-quarter one and imaginatively handled too by Kenneth Richardson”
Evening Standard

 

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2008 Temple Festival
“In 2008, England’s greatest legal institution will celebrate its 400th anniversary with a fabulous festival”
Ham & High

“…this is the most informative, interesting and accessible opportunity that the general public will have to explore the legal heart of London”
the city magazine

“A remarkable satisfying and beatiful account of Dido and Aeneas was a high point of the year-long Temple Festival”
Times Literary Supplement and Opera

“This is class…Damn, it looks good”
The Lawyer.com

“Con tutta questa attività, The Temple si è davvero fatto bello per il suo compleanno”
Suonare

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Adriana Mater
“With simple costumes and the bare minimum of stage direction by Kenneth Richardson, the performances had an intensity that commanded attention”
Opera

The Adventures of Mr Broucek
“Bouquets to Kenneth Richardson for his discreet staging”
Financial Times

“This simple, effective staging enhanced the entire interpretation, on several levels.”
Seen and Heard

The Knot Garden
“This particular staging was well considered and, with a fine cast and cogent performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, provided an enjoyable and often moving entertainment that fully justified the work, without hiding its period charm.”
ConcertoNet.com

“Directed with pertinent simplicity by Kenneth Richardson, all the singers performed well.”
The Times

The Second Mrs Kong
“Kenneth Richardson got each Hoban scene and monologue into precise but nicely ambiguous focus”
Financial Times

“Kenneth Richardson had directed the staging, and concentrated, very sensibly on clarifying the action with a minimum of props and special costumes…but with enough entrances and exits to give the performance a sense of theatre”
The Guardian

“Kenneth Richardson is to be applauded for achieving so much with so little, making a real production out of a concert performance”
MusicalAmerica.com

Amadigi
“Iford does without machines and scenery tricks, but thanks to the intimacy of the venue, some happy touches in Richardson’s production and the quality of the singers, the evening is wholly involving. Even gales couldn’t spoil the enchantment of this evening.”
The Times

“The greatest opera houses of the world with all their technical artifice would be left struggling to even approach the perfection of Amadigi at Iford last Friday.”
The Opera Critic

Eight Songs for a Mad King
“Eight Songs came over with frightening power….directed strongly by Kenneth Richardson”
The Times

“…made this outrageously demanding piece into a lucid and compelling drama”
The Guardian

“…made the piece more moving than ever, and brought out the classic outlines lurking under the expressionist surface”
The Telegraph

A Ceremony of Carols/Winter Words
“…several of Britten’s carols have a message more disturbing than reassuring…Kenneth Richardson’s production brought this out…stark shadows and a feeling of tense expressionist theatre”
Opera

“…an astonishing and memorable piece of stylized musical theater”
New York Times

Oklahoma!
“Kenneth Richardson’s stage direction worked wonders”
The Times

It might as well be swing!
“suddenly the stage of Orchestra Hall became a free-wheeling 1940s nightclub”
Chicago Tribune

Puttin’ on the Ritz
“there was show-biz panache driving this”
Chicago Tribune