Opera set in modern times just plain doesn’t work. Writes Andrew O’Hagan: “Opera can’t cope with modern boredom or the banality of everyday speech without making it seem hilariously camp, overblown, unreal, and unfelt. Anything prosaic quickly seems fake. Everything practical suddenly seems doomed. Maybe opera is just too bold-gestured and not the kind of drama I can believe in when set in a modern context. Even where the music is lovely, and the look is right.”