“it made a visually striking setting for Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, reconfigured as a painter’s studio. In Kasper Holten’s vision of the piece, Bluebeard is an artist, Judith his wife, perhaps one of his former models…But if for a moment this looked like a new scenario that didn’t match details of the libretto, very quickly this version began to feel fascinatingly true to the meaning of the work. After all, the castle itself is only a symbol laid on top of the very human feelings explored in the piece, and Holten puts it back into the characters’ imaginations, making the doors all in Bluebeard’s and/​or Judith’s heads as his production charts their process of self-analysis.”

“In Kasper Holten’s new production of The Turn of the Screw at La Scala the story emerges as the product of the Governess’s progressively loosening grip on reality, caused by her sexual frustrations and obsessions – an entirely plausible take on this famously ambiguous work…Holten’s idea of a two-tiered stage, with a disquietingly empty lower room where the characters descend at moments of particular psychological tension…became convincing thanks to the detailed, intense acting of all the principals. In short, everything seemed in place for an especially successful production.”

“Last May’s musically enthralling and visually spectacular production of Karol Szymanowski’s only opera has been a highlight [of the Royal Opera House season]. Efficiently filmed by Ian Russell, with additional features including interviews with director Kasper Holten…[the DVD] makes a considerable impact…This is an opera that can seem static, almost as though it aspires to the condition of oratorio, and it is to Holten’s credit that his staging emerges with such vivid theatricality.”

“the production [is] directed with flair, clarity and intelligence by Kasper Holten.”

“Director Kasper Holten adopts a shrewd, at times restrained approach, more cerebral than sybaritic, as he translates the 12^th century, Christian Sicily to the modern age.”