Fancy watching homoerotic canings, pervy classics teachers, sado-masochistic rumpy-pumpy? Then get down to the English National Opera now!
Ah, happy schooldays! Remember the systemic bullying, the callous cruelty towards the lonely misfit, the homoerotic canings, the groping by the pervy classics teacher, burning down the school hall, urinating in the playground and watching the repressed music mistress engage in sado-masochistic rumpy-pumpy with the drug-crazed caretaker?
It’s all there in Christopher Alden’s new English National Opera production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And if you don’t recall any of that in Shakespeare, or in Britten’s operatic treatment of the play, you are (in Alden’s view, anyway) missing the point. – The Times
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
