I was lucky enough to see a workshop production of the new musical Napoleon about 18 months ago. It obviously still needed work, but I could see the germ of something really good.
I will be particularly interested in seeing the fleshed-out version because the project is directed by Francesca Zambello, the three-time Olivier Award winner and one of the hot properties of the opera world.
Francesca is concentrating mainly on the Napoleon/Josephine love story and what she calls "the rise and fall of the power couple".
So that could have its parallels elsewhere! I don't know her terribly well, but I first met Cesca, as her friends call her, in America at The Glimmerglass Opera Festival in upstate New York, which is the American Glyndebourne, almost al fresco and very beautiful. She is larger than life, and quite controversial. Glimmerglass were quite brave in choosing her, because their audience is rather conservative.
What she does always brings something fresh to the piece. She is hugely articulate, full of fun, and from talking to people who've worked with her she seems to have the ability to energise an entire company. She is brilliant with the chorus ? not only making them move about, which is what Trevor Nunn does so superbly, but I was told by people at Paris Opera that before she moves in on a project she will get photographs of every single member of the chorus and put names to them, so that when she arrives on the first day she knows each member, which is almost unheard of in the opera world. So they all adore her, of course.
She is also incredibly versatile. I've seen productions of hers ranging from Kurt Weill's musical Lady In The Dark for the Royal National Theatre, Britten's Paul Bunyan at the Royal Opera House, to Boris Godunov for the English National Opera. And the other thing about Francesca is that she is a feminist ? in the nicest sense.
