Battle of Wills Erich Korngold's 'Die Tote Stadt' - reviewed by ROBERT ANDERSON '... production and performance are in the safe hands of the Finnish National Opera ...'

The title of this opera is a misnomer. Now and again we see the glorious tower of the main church at Bruges, and there is every chance that in daylight hours the city bustles as much as usual. I might as well claim that London has expired because I shun it as much as possible and prefer the company of my computer. Thus anyone expecting an incarnation of so telling a vision as James Thomson's City of Dreadful Night or an urban version of some spectral Isle of the Dead will inevitably be disappointed...

ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD