The Nose

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'Stephen Sondheim taught us to avoid red-and-white striped poles that
simultaneously advertise a close shave and the best of fresh pies! The
message from Shostakovich might be that it's unwise to accuse your
barber of having "stinking" hands as he's about to stretch your skin
and, with a swift slice of the blade, deprive you of unwanted hair or
indeed, by drunken accident, an essential organ of sense. Sweeney Todd
had an agenda; Ivan Yakovlevich has the very babushka of a hangover --
as ever -- so mistakes happen and whatever absurdity and surrealism
follows is an entirely Russian phenomenon.'

- David Wilkins, writing in today's Music & Vision about The Opera
Group's current UK production of Shostakovich's opera 'The Nose'.