As the chief executive of English National Opera, Stuart Murphy is never quite sure where the next fire will come from. Literally, in the case of the company’s production of The Valkyrie, which lost its spectacular pyrotechnic centrepiece on the eve of opening in November last year on the orders of the London Fire Brigade. The director Richard Jones’s vision had been for a ring of fire sunk into the stage, but every time the crew tested it, no matter how much they sealed the fire pit, flames would pop up on the other side of the stage. When they pulled up the stage to investigate, they found layers of, effectively, kindling — horsehair, bits of prop, scrap wood — and beneath that, the

Source: The Times April 15, 2022 06:25 UTC