Coliseum To Reopen, But Is It Enough?

The re-opening of the London Coliseum following a 4-year, £41 million renovation will take place at the end of February, and despite some last-minute technical glitches, “advance word is that the project will prove a big success, restoring the original kitschy splendours of Frank Matcham’s 1904 architecture.” But Rupert Christiansen writes that even the most successful renovation imaginable will not make the Coliseum a truly great opera house, and London has yet to make good on any of the plans devised over the years to erect one. Still, new opera houses are a tough sell with the public these days, so the Coliseum may be as good as Londoners are ever going to get.