MARCOS DARBYSHIRE
Stage Director
Liebesgesang
"The two singers masters this difficult act on the tightrope, both vocally and dramatically, breathtakingly well (this compliment is to be taken quite literally). Benjamin Chamandy (Christian) and Mimi Doulton (Luz) convey the ecstasy and hysteria, mortification and affection, longing and disappointment of a relationship that is tearing itself apart.
This “Liebesgesang” is gripping, unconventional musical theater. Certainly not a feel-good program, but one that leaves you gasping for air."
Markus Schramek - Tiroler Tageszeitung
The premiere of the opera “Liebesgesang” by Georg Friedrich Haas, with a libretto by Händl Klaus that is as artful as it is psychologically tricky, offered outstanding contemporary music theater: how Benjamin Chamandy and Mimi Doulton as Christian and Luz let their former great love fade away for seventy dense minutes without orchestra and conductor (musical direction: Stefan Politzka) is so moving and heartbreaking that words fail you afterwards.
Christine Frei - meinbezirk.at
The strong moments include the reading aloud scene (also thanks to the lighting design) and the repeated staging of expressions of will (e.g. “He - wants - back!”). All in all, “Liebesgesang” is a love break-up duet that is hard to beat in terms of intensity. The audience of connoisseurs at “Klangspuren Schwaz” was thrilled at the end and applauded frenetically.
Thomas Nußbaumer - deropernfreund.de
La Scala di Seta/il Signor Bruschino
"Director Marcos Darbyshire and conductor Sander Teepen have set themselves the task of aligning the humor of two one-acts by Rossini, La scala di seta and Il signor Bruschino, with contemporary tastes and insights. In doing so, they show above all that the composer's musical humor still continues to amuse without problem."
Javier López Piñón - Theaterkrant
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"It's rare to hear two Rossinian “farces” performed in succession by the same team. The team assembled by Opera Zuid, the majority of whose members are no older than
Raoul Steffani Il signor Bruschino in their thirties, flexibly adapts to an acting style that finely characterizes the characters, aided by perfectly legible costumes."
Alfred Caron - operamagazine.fr
Denis & Katya
"The Vienna Chamber Opera presents the successful Austrian premiere of “Denis & Katya”. There is no objectivity, it is projected onto the stage. Yes, everyone has to form their own picture of the misfortune that Hasti Molavian and Timothy Connor narrate and sing about with great intensity. In the interplay of four cellos and electronic sounds, Venables has created a catchy, dense sound choreography, which has been convincingly staged by Marcos Darbyshire (director) and Martin Hickmann (stage)."
Stefan Musil - Kronen Zeitung
"The tension of this modern version of Romeo and Juliet was maintained throughout the evening thanks to Marcos Darybshire's direction, which focused on the subtle facial expressions and gestures of the two actors and was skillfully designed for the cramped conditions of the Vienna Chamber Opera."
Walter Dobner - Die Presse
María de Buenos Aires
“With his production of Piazolla's “María de Buenos Aires”, Argentinian director Marcos Darbyshire has created a deeply moving and impressive evening. All those involved were intensely celebrated by the audience.
A moving evening!”
Jan Krobot - Online Merker
“The director of the tango opera, Marcos Darbyshire, also comes from Argentina. He succeeds in making a convincing stage play out of this demanding music and a text that is not easy to follow. This production is a treat for all tango and Piazzolla fans, but also for all fans of intelligent words that also convey a great deal of psychoanalytical and religious metaphor.”
Martin Preisser – St. Galler Abendblatt
Nabucco
“In his new Mainz production of (Nabucco), the young Argentinian director Marcos Darbyshire even does away with the division of the people into Hebrews and Babylonians. When Zaccaria, the high priest, shows weakness in his leadership, the same crowd turns without further ado to his antagonist Nabucco, who smiles like a copy of a contemporary dictator in his spotless white suit.
The director has modern prototypes appear in Verdi's early work. In Martin Hickmann's set design and Annemarie Bulla's costumes, they make the action seem timeless rather than superficially topical, despite the director's courageous interventions. “
Axel Zibulski - FAZ
“Marcos Darbyshire, who won over audiences with “Lucia di Lammermoor” in Darmstadt in 2019 and is now making his directorial debut at Staatstheater Mainz with Verdi's “Nabucco”, interprets this operatic material close to the libretto and pleasantly free of concrete interpretations in the here and now. The result is a coherent production that brings the universal core theme of the play - two peoples hostile to each other - into the modern age and shows that everyone is more than what they seem. Darbyshire's production boldly gets to the heart of many things: the genocide, for example, in a single shocking set revelation with naked mannequins; or the interesting question from today's perspective of what miracle ultimately converts Nabucco to the “true God Jehovah” - God as a child playing yo-yo...”
Nina Waßmundt - Darmstädter Echo
Lucia di Lammermoor
"In Darbyshire's new production, however, the character of Lucia's tutor and fatherly confidant Raimondo, who becomes Lucia's younger brother, undergoes the strongest reinterpretation. Based on these assumptions, the young Argentinian's direction unfolds with almost shocking stringency in combination with an enormously strong musical interpretation.
The musical and scenic unity of the new production, which never questions the primacy of the singing but legitimizes it in all its extremes from the plot, is all the more astonishing given the circumstances of the rehearsals. Marcos Darbyshire had only taken over the direction and at least parts of the concept from his colleague Dirk Schmeding, who was ill, shortly before rehearsals began."
Axel Zibulski - FAZ
"“The fact that Darbyshire had to be presented with a fait accompli in terms of the set is not detrimental to the production, however. He finds a plausible path between a tasteful characterization and an effective, spooky family tragedy, as Walter Scott, author of the novel “The Bride Of Lammermoor”, would have liked.”
Judith Sternburg - Frankfurter Rundschau December 2019
“Best of all, downright magnificent, is the third act:: the fact that Lucia's madness aria, performed by Bianca Tognocchi with breathtaking coloratura and sparkling top notes, unfolds its full dramatic force also has to do with the symbolically exaggerated visuals of the scene.
Here, too, the visual language is grotesquely broken: step by step, the murdered husband rolls down to crawl away in a bizarre contortion. An ironic alienation that drives the tragic outcome of the drama all the more drastically under the skin. At the end there is an act of rebellion: Lucia does not kill herself, but her tyrannical brother - and thus breaks with the tradition of female self-sacrifice... “
Silvia Adler - Opernwelt
“Darbyshire takes up Donizetti's concept of condensation and implements it consistently. The plot focuses largely on the conflict between Lucia and Enrico and drives straightforwardly towards the dramatic end. With this intensification, Darbyshire illustrates the inhuman practice of a patriarchal society of viewing women as mere pawns in the game for power and status. (...) This production maintains the tension from the first to the last scene and never lets the audience out of its spell for a moment.”
Frank Raudszus - egotrip.de
Don Pasquale
“A stroke of genius: “Don Pasquale” at the Chamber Opera, Holy Cecilia, what a magically light, refreshing production the Vienna Chamber Opera has succeeded in creating! Director Marcos Darbyshire realizes his spring-like interpretation with wit and esprit - and thanks to the brilliant comedic performances of the protagonists.”
Stefan Ender - Der Standard
"Don Pasquale has never been seen like this before: on the tiny stage of the Vienna Chamber Opera, the charming offshoot of the magnificent Theater an der Wien. The most original, witty and lively version of Gaetano Donizetti's “Don Pasquale” imaginable has been created with the minimum of singers, musicians and stage design, as required by the available space. On the small stage, the staging and the cast reproduce all the exuberant comedy that Donizetti and his librettist Giovanni Ruffini came up with."
Charles E. Ritterband – klassik-begeistert.de
Die Verwandlung
“...The serious counterpart was created by Stephan Peiffer with his short opera “Die Verwandlung”, directed by Marcos Darbyshire from Argentina in an equally quiet and subtle manner.”
Lutz Lesle - Die Welt
“Stephan Pfeiffer's “The Metamorphosis”, based on Kafka's famous story, was musically and scenically coherent and disturbingly intense. Director Marcos Darbyshire as well as Kindermann and Bulla created the oppressive image of an incestuously entangled, monstrous Adams family.”
Ilja Stephan - Hamburger Abendblatt