Glenys Groves

Groundbreaking and visionary, this is archival documentation of Kate Bush’s one and only tour. Originally known as the “Kate Bush Tour” as well as the “Lionheart Tour”, it later became known under the moniker “The Tour of Life”. The only official video release from the '79 tour was an abridged 12-song set titled “Live at Hammersmith Odeon” in 1981. In 1994, "Live at Hammersmith Odeon" was released as a VHS box set that contained a CD of the performance. This footage presents the tour performance from beginning to end and consists of all three acts as well as encores and backstage warm-ups. The audio is from the soundboard recording of the concert.

David McVicar's spellbinding production of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO is set in 1830s post-revolution France, where the inexorable unravelling of an old order has produced acute feelings of loss. In the relationship between Finley's suave, dashingly self-absorbed Count and Röschmann's passionately dignified Countess, which lies at the tragic heart of the opera, the sexy ease between a feisty Figaro (Erwin Schrott) and a sassy Susanna (Miah Persson) is starkly absent, the tenacious spark between Marcellina (Graciela Araya) and Bartolo (Jonathan Veira) suggesting what might be rekindled. The production is superbly complemented by the beauty of Paule Constable's lighting and Tanya McCallin's evocative sets. Antonio Pappano conducts (and accompanies the recitatives) with invigorating wit and emotional depth.