Film Director Mike Figgis Fails ENO Femme Fatale Attempt

Claire Rutter in the title role Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at English National Opera

If you had high hopes about the announcement of Mike Figgis making his directorial debut at ENO, prepare yourself for the review of the performance after the jump (more photos as well):

"Ignorance is bliss, goes the old saying. Not at English National Opera, it isn’t. Film director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas, Internal Affairs) has staged a work there, even though he cheerfully admits in a program note that he is ignorant about opera. Figgis has tackled Donizetti’s complicated 1833 tragedy Lucrezia Borgia. Why do ignorant people boast of their deficiency as if it were a badge of honor? The opera bravely tries to resist the director’s incompetence. It has some terrific arias, and a dramatic trio in Act 1 in which Lucrezia watches her husband poison the man she adores (who, just to rack up the tension further, happens to be her son). The son survives, only to be murdered by her later. Meaty stuff. It’s no use. In Figgis’s hands, the staging generates all the excitement of watching a compost heap decay for two and a half hours." [Source]