Event: Rothschild's violin, opera, Cottiers theatre, Glasgow

Review by Loujin Al-ani, 15, Glasgow

Two stars

A compact opera was delivered in a timely manner - big voices in a cosy venue.

Glasgow's intimate Cottiers Theatre brought a grand production in Russian, Rothschild's Violin, to a petite public venue.

Music Co-operative Scotland took to their stage in a mixed views kind of way. Although the talent of seemingly Russian singers: soprano (Lauren McQuisten), tenor (Matthew Bridle) and baritone (Alexey Gusev) was extraordinary, it lacked an essential story line to please. It left you with the taste of boredom rather than garlic.

The plot consisted of a hustle, an insult of "Garlic! Garlic!", and a slightly too intimate scene where Rothschild and his violin need a bit of private time. The plot being so simple and rushed made it ironically hard to understand. Jumping from one theme to another I noticed the crowd had their hands placed solidly to their chins trying to accumulate their quick thoughts. Not the way to go.

Maybe it was my lack of experience with operas (my first one had dark garlic humour) but the diversity of an emotional orchestra and hard to understand plot was too much.

On a different note, the spirit of the conductor and the resonance of the melodic orchestra was definitely what evoked the most feelings. They should be praised extensively.

However, if you would like to attend a short opera with dark animations, brilliant singers, garlic humour, a crisp orchestra and tolerable costumes then I highly recommend Rothschild's Violin in Russian.

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