[Translated from German] The strengths of composer Gordon Getty lay more with song, and in that, letting the text be sung in a way that one understands every syllable, whereby the transitions between reciting and singing pitches are fluent. So, one can easily follow the story of the ghost who fails to scare the Americans in the Canterville castle. Anthony Pilavachi stages this on a one-to-one basis in Tatjana Ivschina’s beautiful set design, creates several punchlines and gets out the fun that can be got out.

This also goes for the singers, revolving around Matthew Treviño’s ghost, Jennifer Porto’s enchanting Virginia, and Jonathan Michie's brisk US envoy. Acting-wise they give everything, while not always being in a comfortable position when delivering the text, which is without melodic relief or dramatic, lyrical or any power at all, apart from the distinctive, but too long, and dramatically strangely out of place, final love duet. Part of an opera is an orchestra. Getty has dressed it mostly in a soft silver color. In better moments it illustrates the text. Yet, most of the time it plays, because that’s what it’s supposed to do...it’s part of an opera. When it plays, then only sparing bits of scales which alternate with triads. Underneath, accented notes mark the bass, in between, a cembalo or a percussion instrument set the course. And, as The Canterville Ghost also deals with the clash of cultures between the United States and United Kingdom, "Yankee Doodle" meets "Rule Britannia". This all is easy to follow because Mathias Foremny is so unhurried at the conductor’s stand, that the "ghost" haunts a quarter of an hour longer than intended by the composer. That doesn’t make it any easier for the orchestra. Because of the akwardness of composition, their parts are not pleasant to play.