Allan Clayton wins Olivier Award

Allan Clayton has won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for his role in Mark-Anthony Turnage's new opera Festen at Royal Ballet & Opera, Covent Garden. The ceremony was held at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday and Clayton was performing in Norway, but his award was collected by Turnage and librettist Lee Hall. The opera itself won Best New Opera Production.

Clayton wrote: 'Thank you to Mark and Lee for creating an astonishing new piece of music drama; to everyone at the RBO, on/off/under the stage; to the props team for the fifteen gallons of fake wine; and to Richard Jones, Edward Gardner and the phenomenal cast.'

Based on the seminal Dogme 95 film of the same name, with a libretto by Lee Hall, the production was directed by Richard Jones and conducted by Edward Gardner and has received five-star reviews across the press.

Bachtrack wrote of Clayton's performance: 'As Christian, the prodigal son who returns to the event to shake everything up by calling his father out on his abusive past, Allan Clayton was at his very best, giving a bizarre but completely credible mix of the goofiness we’ve seen from him in roles like Candide, the hard edge of a Peter Grimes and absolute beauty of voice in his lyrical moments.'

Operawire reviewed it saying: 'Performances across the board are stellar... Chief among them is Allan Clayton, troubled soul par excellence, whose vocal power is undimmed and ability to sing a pianissimo on a big stage still unbeaten.'

The Guardian described Clayton's performance as 'passionate' and 'heartbreaking' and wrote that 'The orchestral score drives this tragedy inexorably, with Turnage showing an infallible sense of when to allow the quiet power of the words to speak for themselves and when to allow his music to take charge, as the action flips from black comedy to bleak horror'. 

Festen is currently available to listen to on BBC Sounds.