Super singing saves these lovers from so many shades of grey

VERDI was not the only composer obsessed by Shakespeare. Berlioz, too, was in love with the Bard — and also with the Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson, whom he was to passionately pursue and later (disastrously) marry.

Perhaps their tempestuous relationship inspired him to adapt Shakespeare’s great battle-of-the-sexes comedy Much Ado About Nothing, though Beatrice Et Benedict is a much pared-down version of the play, scrapping the intrigue of the Don John subplot and the comedy of Dogberry and his Watch.

What he concentrated on here was Romantic love. And where Verdi would have delivered guts and passion, Berlioz gives us soul — and his lovely, glistening score provides it, lyrical and tender.

There’s also a lot of spoken dialogue, close to Shakespeare but too often cumbersome and boring here.

The opera is rarely performed, so it’s a real pity that Laurent Pelly, usually the doyen of comic opera directors, has so misconceived Glyndebourne’s new production.

The action should take place in sunny, colourful Sicily. But Pelly sets it in a surreal city of giant, grey cardboard boxes, because, he says, the rebellious sparring lovers ‘refuse to fit into a mould and live in a “box” ’.

His costumes are grey, too. And the make-up.

It looks dreary, drab and ghastly. Oh, for 50 shades!

But it’s beautifully played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Antonello Mana- corda, the chorus is terrific — Pelly works his innovative magic on them, at least, and provides some decent comic routines — and the cast is stylishly led by American tenor Paul Appleby and French mezzo-soprano Stephanie d’Oustrac (pictured) as haughty bachelor Benedict and his ‘Lady Disdain’. Fine singing, too, from Sophie Karthauser ( Hero) and Katarina Bradi (Ursule). But d’Oustrac is extraordinary, an enchanting singing actress who superbly captures Beatrice’s transformation from imperious d ragon to melting lover. The third star of this review is for her alone. The production goes live to cinemas on August 9.