Just in: ROH tones down rape, covers up victim

PR man Mark Borkowski was at the second performance of William Tell at Covent Garden last night. He saw,

‘a production about as raunchy as an in flagrante tussle in Downton. Rather than being naked the actress covered herself. This altered the tone of the scene to make the rape less explicit and more stylised. If there was any booing it was drowned out by roof-raising applause. Quite rightly. Antonio Pappano conducts a world-class cast and Damiano Michieletto’s staging –earthy, oddly cinematic- brings something moving to a story full of archetype and patriotic bravura.’

He adds: ‘The journalist I was seated next to on Thursday was gone by the interval — disappointed not to be able to fill her notebook with salacious bile.’

Mark’s full report is here.