Impromptu

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A world-class classical music venue in London may be years away so where can music lovers find truly outstanding acoustics? Trevor Cox picks 10 landmark concert halls around the world where brilliant design means beautiful sound

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Netia Jones: punk it up

It is one of the most visually riotous shows of the year – an Alice in Wonderland that takes live action and video to surreal extremes. Imogen Tilden meets Netia Jones, the nerdy young director with her finger firmly on the button

A rainy February evening at Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall. The city’s great and good are in their finery, Gustavo Dudamel sits next to the orchestra’s chief executive Deborah Borda. The 2,265-seat hall is sold out for the first night of a new production of Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland, in a multimedia staging by Netia Jones. The stage is painted in black-and-white geometric patterns, and between the feet of her fellow string players a viola player crawls around. At the back of the stage, a figure in a red suit seems to be supporting the bottom edge of an enormous video screen that rests at an extreme angle. The chorus are dressed in suits, bowler hats and Harry Palmer-style 60s glasses or scarlet hunting jackets and riding hats.A hush descends, but then a final musician dashes on stage, pulling on his trousers as he scampers to his place among the brass. On the giant screen, the letters that had spelt out Alice in Wonderland gradually drop away and lie in a messy pile, leaving only an eye peeping out, blinking through what was the “O” of Wonderland. At the back of the stalls, behind severe glasses and several laptops, sits Netia Jones, orchestrating and conducting the apparent chaos.

There can’t be many opera directors who play such a crucial part in each and every performance, but for Jones it’s the only way her productions can come to life. “With this kind of integrated video, there’s no time for cues – I have to respond live to the music,” she says. Every key operates a different function: she plays the laptop as if it is an extra member of the orchestra. “Where projection doesn’t quite work in classical music is where it’s not totally integrated. Unless it’s completely enmeshed, it can be a fight.” But does she not have a flunky who can sit at the laptop each night? “That’s a big ask for someone else. I programmed the show myself, and I know the score intimately. Plus, they’d need to be as nerdy as me.”

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