Revenge is a doomed undertaking in Sweeney Todd. In Stephen Sondheim’s sweeping grand guignol musical, a wronged street barber grows increasingly fixated on violent retribution for a crime against his wife and daughter – aided by his adoring accomplice Mrs Lovett, who runs a questionable pie shop on Fleet Street.
Categorised by Sondheim as a “dark operetta”, with about 80% of the score sung through, the grand melodrama has become a regular choice for opera companies since its Broadway debut in 1979. This Victorian Opera and New Zealand Opera co-production, directed by Stuart Maunder as part of the Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary program, is the latest: a lush and crowd-pleasing – albeit watered-down – taste of the perturbed obsession laced through Sondheim’s lyrics and Hugh Wheeler’s book.
