Newsnight Review discussed the opera of Sophie's Choice at the Royal Opera House in London.

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(Edited highlights of the panel's review)

PHILLIP HENSHER:
I can understand why people are buying tickets, because it pins a lot on the significance of the subject. It is a basic fallacy that great opera needs to be about great subjects. I do not think La Boheme would be greatly improved if it were more explicitly about the need to increase student grants. There are only two things wrong with the opera; one is the words and the other is the music, which does not leave a great deal. The libretto is awful, chaotic, a great mess, rambling on when it needs to be so concise. With the music, has a great problem in coming up with any striking musical imagery or any memorable musical event. After four hours of music the only two things I could remember were the side drum for the train going to Auschwitz and the string cords at the beginning which were by Vaughan Williams anyway.

MARK LAWSON:
Phillip mentions the libretto and how he has written it himself. He has set large parts of the dialogue from the film, great swathes of words.

JEANETTE WINTERSON:
It is it's a huge mistake. It would not be four hours long and so tortuous to listen to as a libretto if he had employed somebody who was both dramatically astute and a poet. It is far too long. It just doesn't work it needs somebody to move it faster. The end of the second act is a disaster because he does not know where to cut it. Musically I think it is complex but, like Britain, also has great clarity. He uses themes and flavours of the situations so you hear the rhythms of the deep south, the melancholy minor tones of Jewish and Polish folk music.

IAN RANKIN:
I think the two holocaust scenes were two of the most effective scenes in the whole production. The whole four hours were fairly short scenes involving the train to Auschwitz and the arrival of the train at Auschwitz. They were wonderful coups of theatre of staging. You just couldn't believe it when suddenly this train was there with all these people packed in like sardines. The hair went up on my arms. I found it very moving. The later scene with the train worked well with the separation of the children from the mother. As for the rest of it, I remember reading the book and thought the book should be shorter. I agree, I am not used to seeing great libretto when I go to opera. I usually think they could have written it better, but sometimes you tend to blame the translation. There were huge swathes that could have been cut.

JEANETTE WINTERSON:
It was a brave and bold move and we should applaud the ambition. It is important to have new opera that deals with great subjects. It is exciting that you have taken the intimate moments of a love affair and exploded it into history.

IAN RANKIN:
The point at which the opera arrived at Auschwitz was moving. It was tremendously moving because you did not have too many words, you had not too many things to focus on and you had wonderful music.

PHILLIP HENSHER:
I do not think there is a limitation in what an opera can take on as a subject. There is no reason why a great opera could not be written about Auschwitz. I do not think this is it, but great operas are written about all sorts of things.