September 2021, Oper Frankfurt, L’Italiana in Londra, opera by Cimarosa, director R. B. Schlather, conductor Leo Hussain, set Paul Steinberg, costume Doey Lüthi, light Joachim Klein, dramaturge Mareike Wink, photographs Monika Rittershaus

“The Cimarosa-premiere ended the music-theatrical famine with liberating laughter: R.B. Schlather delivers a lively and irreverent production … Where she is silly, she stays silly. Where she brings elements of the opera seria with a wink, these are implemented with a wink. Where at the end all the heartache dissolves into a frenzied Stretta, that happens too, and a tiny final gag at the end creates a moment of irritation, but does not lapse into the customary directors' theater reverse conclusion, and only makes the audience laugh all the more freely … Here, as always with comedies, everything depends on the precisely timed punchline, and the director and conductor have worked together wonderfully, music and scene mesh like hand and glove.”

— FAZ, September 2021

“The American director R.B. Schlather really gives the monkeys some sugar: He sees the hotel where the three men meet and vie for the beautiful Italian woman Livia, as a metaphorical place of imagination, as a playground for human comedy. The characters are shamelessly overdrawn, the intrigues outrageous, the costumes colorful. The revolving stage is dominated by a stylized hotel with indicated windows and doors, a few props are added. The focus is on the five singers who have an audible pleasure in the music and the staging… the Frankfurt “Italiana” is entertainment theater in the best sense of the word: wonderfully played, beautifully sung and staged in a hilarious way.”

— Bernd Zegowitz, BNN October 2021

“Schlather, who staged Händel's "Tamerlano" in the Bockenheimer Depot almost two years ago, takes up the fundamental disrespect of the plot towards the seriousness of life… In relation to the completely different "Tamerlano,” this is conclusive proof that Schlather adapts himself to the piece and not the piece to him. And nevertheless or even therefore he creates something really unconventional and inventive.”

— Frankfurter Rundschau, September 2021

“This production, Schlather’s second for Oper Frankfurt, is a runaway success and a rare delight … Let’s hope it remains in Frankfurt’s repertoire for years to come.”

— Opera Canada, October 2021