• The grand opera Les Huguenots was one of the greatest opera successes of the 19th century, and its premiere on 29 February 1836 is regarded as a key moment in opera history.
• Relevant & up to date production with regards to the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation: In his timeless staging, John Dew uses connotations of the Huguenots rebellions, St. Bartholomew’s Day and the Berlin Wall to demonstrate the senseless violence and drama caused by conflicting ideologies. Until today, the French Catholics’ attempt to kill all French Protestants during St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre is regarded as one of the most horrible examples of religious fanaticism.
• A highly acclaimed performance of Deutsche Oper in 1991, recorded under the direction of Brian Large and sung in German.
• Featuring top-class soloists such as Richard Leech as Raoul and Lucy Peacock as Valentine.
[…] In this operatic case history, John Dew exposes all too clearly that whatever afflictions have beset us in the past continue to do so in the present. Partisan groups strive for peace, but in the accompanying tug-of-war each is reluctant to let go of hard-won privileges […] the swimming pool is the place for rich and beautiful women to escape the scarred exteriors of buildings destroyed in an endless civil war; the People's Army take champagne and women for bodily sustenance, but for the spirit they rely on the sanctity of their weapons.
Thomas Feist, Berliner Zeitung