John Savournin
Director
INTRODUCTION
John Savournin is renowned as a director for his imaginative, inventive productions, and for his collaborative, generous style. Announced as the Artistic Director and CEO of Waterperry Opera Festival in September 2025, he has created productions both as Artistic Director of Charles Court Opera, and as a freelance director, devisor, and writer, working primarily in Opera and Musical Theatre. He was a finalist in the ‘Rising Talent’ category at the International Opera Awards 2022 for his directing work.
During 2026, his Charles Court Opera production of Iolanthe will play at Wilton’s Music Hall, and his Scottish Opera production of The Merry Widow will be restaged at Buxton International Festival. He will also revive his Whistle-stop adaptation of The Mini Magic Flute for Opera North, and his production of The Pirates of Penzance will be restaged at the International G&S Festival. Looking ahead, he direct and create Arion and the Dolphin, a new children’s opera commission, for London’s Royal Ballet & Opera, whilst for English National Opera, he will revive Trial by Jury and direct a new production of The Zoo in a double bill.
In the 2024/25 season, his engagements included directing new productions of The Merry Widow, for which he also wrote the script for a new translation, and Trial by Jury, both for Scottish Opera and Opera Holland Park. The season also saw his production of the children’s opera Dewi in the Deep at the Royal Ballet and Opera, Covent Garden, his productions of The Magic Flute and Patience for CCO at Wilton’s Music Hall, Napoleon, un petit pantomime at the West End’s Jermyn Street Theatre. Selected by Opera Now as ‘The Pick of The Fringe,’ Patience, won the Opera Production category at the 2023 Offies and was also selected as ‘Best Opera of 2022’ by The Arts Desk.
In the 2023/24 season, he directed The Yeomen of the Guard for OHP/CCO, the children’s opera Dewi in the Deep at the Royal Ballet and Opera, Covent Garden, in a co-production with CCO and The Opera Story, and the G & S Walking Tour for English National Opera, as part of Westminster City Council’s Inside Out Festival. He also revived his Whistle – stop opera adaptations of Cinderella and The Cunning Little Vixen for Opera North and directed CCO productions of The Barber of Seville and The Sorcerer, both at Wilton’s Music Hall, Odyssey – a heroic pantomime for CCO and Jermyn Street Theatre and revived The Mikado for CCO at IF Opera.
Opera engagements have also included HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and Ruddigore, all co-productions between Opera Holland Park and CCO, Trial by Jury for Opera North, as part of the company’s season of Little Greats, the Spring 2022 Opera Highlights Tour for Scottish Opera, and a staging of Benjamin Britten’s Songs and Proverbs of William Blake for English Touring Opera (lost to the pandemic). During Autumn 2020, he directed three films: Grief, a new short opera by Amanda Holden and Nils Holger-Peterson for Opera Harmony, available on Opera Vision; Whistle-stop Opera – Cinderella for Opera North; and CCO’s online pantomime, Snow White in the Seven Months of Lockdown.
He is passionate about the next generation and has written and/or directed many outreach projects for the Royal Opera, Opera North, OHP, the Concordia Foundation and for CBBC. He recently produced and recorded a new children’s opera radio series alongside CBBC presenter Chris Jarvis – a project supported by Arts Council England and the Concordia Foundation. He has also recently directed Opera Scenes for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Royal Northern College of Music. He has created Opera North’s series of Whistle Stop Operas to date, including The Mini Magic Flute, which was commissioned for the CBBC, and What is Opera? which aired on the BBC’s Opera Passion series. He has written several opera adaptations for the Royal Opera’s Opera Dots series and directed an adaptation of The Pirates of Penzance for OHP’s ‘Inspire’ programme. As the Education Manager for the Concordia Foundation until the charity closed its doors, he wrote and directed original musical works for performances linked to and involving schools in London, including The Man in the Moon – there’s no Planet B? which focussed on climate change and recycling.
John Savournin founded Charles Court Opera in 2005. Four of his CCO productions have won “Best Production” awards at the Off West End awards, including Patience at Wilton’s Music Hall and Odyssey: a heroic panto, in a co-production with Jermyn Street Theatre, for which he also penned the script. His productions for the company have included Express G&S, several of the G&S operas, The Turn of the Screw, Noye’s Fludde, Cosi fan Tutte, La bohème, Tosca, pantomimes including Beowulf – An Epic Panto; Buttons: A Cinderella Pantomime, King Tut – An Egypt Panto, Rumpelstiltskin and both The Magic Flute and The Barber of Seville for co-productions with Iford Arts. He has written/directed CCO’s pantomimes to date, often also appearing as the Dame or Villain, and directed an evening entitled Avant-Garde including Schoenberg’s Pierre Lunaire, Peter Maxwell-Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King and a series of Beckett shorts.
Elsewhere, John has directed a rare revival of Sondheim and Rogers’ musical Do I Hear a Waltz? at the Park Theatre in London; Tosca and Il Barbiere di Siviglia for the Musique Cordiale Festival in the South of France; Handel’s Giulio Cesare for Trinity College of Music at the Blackheath Halls; Acis and Galatea; The Impresario; Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri and Wolf Ferrari’s Susanna’s Secret.
A feature interview appears in the May 2022 issue of Opera and his work has also been featured in The Spectator.
Please note that this biography is not to be used for programmes. Current information is available on request.
REVIEWS
The Merry Widow / Buxton International Festival 2026
“Slick and entertaining, the update works brilliantly.”
The Stage 5*
“John Savournin’s rewrite and production of The Merry Widow is an ingenious twist on an old favourite. And it is a quality show – a romp, even.”
TheatreReviewsNorth
Iolanthe / Charles Court Opera at Wilton’s Music Hall 2026
“With performances of such precision, intelligence and joy, Charles Court Opera delivers an evening that is both exhilarating and unexpectedly moving.”
Everything Theatre
“A company of this calibre, offering affordable tickets for this splendid production of Iolanthe. Bravo!” 5*
London Pub Theatres
“This Iolanthe is well-produced, beautifully sung and bitingly satirical. This opera may be well over a hundred years old, but it can still have contemporary resonance.”
LouReviews
“This is triumph. It is riotously funny, musically accomplished and politically sharp.” 5*
The Spy in the Stalls
Patience / Charles Court Opera at Wilton’s Music Hall 2025
“Patience by Charles Court Opera offers an extra energy that is infectious – with a joy for the work and with a natural affinity with the audience. This was a wonderful experience to be recommended.”
Everything Theatre
“The whole production has energy and that elusive quality: style! John Savournin should be warmly congratulated on keeping “G&S” alive and demonstrating how it can be not only relevant to a modern audience without any gimmicks, but also highly entertaining.”
LondonTheatre1
“Charles Court Opera demonstrates that Gilbert & Sullivan’s most contemporary work remains as timeless as ever.”
The Reviews Hub
“Charles Court Opera Artistic Director John Savournin is a greatly experienced director and performer but is in his element here creating another boutique opera for the company.”
West End Best Friend
The Merry Widow / Opera Holland Park 2025
“This mid-century Merry Widow is enormously enjoyable. Come for the big tunes, stay for the “birthday cement mixer” (don’t ask).”
The Guardian
“This is a fun production that entertains opera audiences both new and seasoned, and breathes new life into an acclaimed work.”
The Reviews Hub
Trial by Jury / Scottish Opera 2025
“A period-piece spoof brought to vivid life under John Savournin’s direction…”
Bachtrack
“John Savournin, whose mafioso reimagining and pacey direction of Lehár’s The Merry Widow wowed two weeks ago, brought the same creative skillset to the G & S.”
Edinburgh Music Review
“John Savournin directs Trial by Jury, which swaps the courtroom for a TV studio in a sparkling update that is more Jerry Springer than Judge Judy.”
The Guardian
“Director John Savournin’s perfectly balanced staging boasts an ingenious and glitzy TV studio set by takis. Like Gilbert’s libretto and Sullivan’s music, the production has a delightful lightness which contrast nicely with its underlying, satirical edge.”
The National
“John Savournin’s experience in Gilbert and Sullivan provided the bedrock for a Trial by Jury that oozed confidence and stagecraft from start to finish. The overall result had an unstuffy, intergenerational appeal – just what G & S needs to lift it out of the genre’s late-Victorian conventions.”
Opera
“…John Savournin’s bright, breezy new production of Trial by Jury for Scottish Opera. Crucially, Savournin’s updating provides a plausible distancing device for some of the one-act operetta’s more dated humour. It’s a relentlessly entertaining 45 minutes delivered with abundant spirit and gusto.”
The Scotsman
“John Savournin presents the piece as a 1980s television game show, which works brilliantly.”
The Stage
“Direction by John Savournin was slick and tight-knit.”
The Telegraph
“Trial by Jury bubbles with witty lightness.”
The Times
“…a brilliant revival of Gilbert & Sullivan’s first hit, John Savournin’s Trial by Jury is set in a 1980’s television studio and the directorial device works a treat.”
VoxCarynx
The Merry Widow / Scottish Opera 2025
“In a big show, 14 principals and chorus were all impeccably directed by Savournin.”
Bachtrack
“John Savournin’s direction keeps the constant tonal shifts perfectly balanced: slapstick and ribald comedy teeter on the edge of real threat; moments of delicate inhibition sit alongside heartbreak, joy, sadness, and regret. There are comedy songs and moments where this light-hearted operetta touches the sublime.”
BroadwayBaby
“The production is a triumph. It deserves to play to packed houses throughout its run. Very highly recommended.”
Edinburgh Music Review
“John Savournin is a master of stage composition and crowd control, but he also created space and stillness for the more intimate set pieces.”
Opera
“…a dizzying theatrical tsunami. Rarely has a Scottish Opera audience laughed so much, or so heartily.”
The Scotsman
“If any director has earned the right to take risks with this repertoire, it’s Savournin, and it’s marvellous how smartly it all falls into place…We’re in good hands – better than that, inspired ones.”
The Spectator
“…it’s great fun, looks fabulous and works a treat. Savournin and Eaton have created a clever and delightfully silly cross between a commedia dell’arte farce and an episode of The Sopranos. This inspired daftness is conveyed fabulously by a universally impressive cast…a set change that is breathtakingly well executed.”
The Telegraph
“it’s hard to imagine a more sunlit, summery experience than this new production of The Merry Widow. In short, this is a treat, as fresh as it’s entertaining. If it doesn’t put you in the summer mood, then nothing will.”
The Times
“With iron conviction and an instinctive eye for theatrical gold, director John Savournin has taken a huge risk with an old favourite and artfully brought it off. This production’s opening night had the entire Theatre Royal buzzing with unfettered laughter, an unmistakeable measure of its success.”
VoxCarnyx
The Yeomen of the Guard / Opera Holland Park 2024
“I can’t remember a production of The Yeomen of the Guard that so effectively judged the balance between farce and romance, happiness and heartbreak, grand spectacle and music-hall song and dance.”
The Times
The Sorcerer / Charles Court Opera at Wilton’s Music Hall 2024
“John Savournin’s direction is pitch-perfect…This is a magical production, and G&S fans shouldn’t miss it.”
London Living Large 5*
“John Savournin’s direction is most imaginative, always at the service of both librettist and composer, yet always witty and occasionally poignant.”
LondonTheatre1
“John Savournin’s direction is most imaginative, always at the service of both librettist and composer, yet always witty and occasionally poignant.”
Operetta Research Center
“This production thrills and delights the audience, whether they are new to opera or avid fans.”
The Reviews Hub
“John Savournin’s Charles Court Opera is unrivalled at generating musical-comedy magic on a microscopic budget. With a piano accompaniment and a single pastel-coloured set, Savournin’s new staging still has everything it needs to make the show dance and the audience laugh.”
The Spectator
The Barber of Seville / Charles Court Opera at Wilton’s Music Hall 2024
hoosing a wild west theme with stock characters, comparable to those of opera, was an inspired move by director John Savournin, not least because Spaghetti Westerns have acclimatised us to this Italian American love-child.
Where transformations in set and AV are spartan, fabulous costumes and confident delivery are abundant in this flawless, midscale production of Rossini’s 1816 classic.”
British Theatre Guide
“London must treasure its two big opera houses, but truly these smaller productions are where great things can also happen.”
Culture Whisper
“This is an irreverent and entertaining production to make even the most dismissive of audiences fall in love with opera again.”
Everything Theatre
“Those familiar with Savournin’s way with G&S will recognise many of his signature touches here – fluent naturalism, scope for each singer to build up character, and exploration of the full spatial resources of the stage with constant dynamic movement that never incommodes the singer’s vocal production.”
Plays To See
“Charles Court Opera draws on years of expertise with Gilbert and Sullivan, and this Barber is a reminder that arguably the most famous operatic comedy draws in many respects from the same well of goofy humour and virtuosic patter-song as the Savoy Operas.”
The Times
Odyssey: An Heroic Pantomime / Charles Court Opera ay Jermyn Street Theatre
“This is the show that launched a thousand puns, mostly ancient-Greek-oriented, and just as many corny rhymes, all delivered with high energy and greeted with joyful groans. To say it’s no epic is a compliment: Charles Court Opera’s boutique pantos rely upon perfect focus in small spaces, and this is a tight little craft, with five brilliant women firing up director/writer John Savournin’s script and David Eaton’s musical arrangements.”
The Arts Desk
“This is an enjoyable panto, well-performed and a refreshing change from the usual stories, though still retaining the traditional components. So, entering into the spirit, I won’t lyre to you, all Rhodes may not lead to Jermyn Street, but it’s worth taking a Minotaur two for a detour to see this fun production which Ouzo’s with charm.”
Everything Theatre
“A remarkably tasteful evening, this fun and friendly production is an amusing, if slightly surreal, experience. Even the antagonist was treated with affection: I didn’t know there was such a thing as booing with love, but I’ve discovered it here.”
Chris Omaweng, LondonTheatre1
“This is a show perfect for an adult older than thirty, who remembers owning a troll doll but also wants to laugh at Aristophanes references.”
The Reviews Hub
“This might be the smallest pantomime in town, but it provides epic fun.”
The Telegraph
“John Savournin has crafted a daft but tight script, and directs with a sure hand.”
The Times
“Odyssey: An Heroic Pantomime is the genre at its very best…Not exactly a history lesson – more a feelgood lesson.”
West End Best Friend
The Mikado / Arcola Theatre 2023
“It is a real tonic – very funny, superbly sung and acted and imaginatively directed by John Savournin. The sort of production that is liable to convert those who say that they do not enjoy Gilbert and Sullivan…”
London Theatre 1
“This was an evening of G&S delivered with consummate skill and artistry, great pacing and a terrific sense of relish.”
Planet Hugill
“This production delighted its audience and deserves to be seen far and wide. It stands out for its inherent quality and for the carefully considered way in which it updates where required, while preserving the essentials not just untouched, but even enhanced.”
Plays To See
“A splendid production.”
The Reviews Hub
Express G & S / Charles Court Opera at Wilton’s Music Hall 2023
“All in all a wonderful, uplifting, life-affirming production, set off by the ambience of Wilton’s Music Hall, a venue that just HAS to be seen!” 5*
LondonTheatre1
“…this is a show which will delight G&S aficionados although there’s plenty here to amuse the rest of you too.”
Musical Theatre Review
“…one of John Savournin’s best spoofs to date.” 5*
ReviewsGate
“…most jukebox musicals could learn a thing or two from the neat management of composition and its integration into the story. “
The Reviews Hub
“Performed with an over-the-top silliness that fits the show just right, every syllable and every movement is an opportunity the cast seizes to try to make the audience laugh. The writing is humorous enough – but it’s Savournin’s direction and the actors’ performances that are the most chock full of funny.”
The Upcoming
Ruddigore / Opera Holland Park & Charles Court Opera 2023
“The evening demonstrates the familiar virtues of John Savournin’s productions. The material is treated perfectly seriously, which intensifies the humour…It is hard to see how this show could be done better, whether in its respect for the original or in updating staging, acting technique and text in subtle and appropriately convincing fashion.”
British Theatre
“Nobody does Gilbert and Sullivan better than the director John Savournin…”
Opera
“John Savournin’s production was bright, fast and funny, with playful choreography, whip-smart choral singing and a fresh-voiced cast with real comic chops.”
The Spectator
“…as polished a Gilbert and Sullivan show as you could hope to see.”
The Times
Rumpelstiltskin / Charles Court Opera at Park Theatre 2022
It is crazy. But in the best way possible. This show is the best way to warm you up on these cold nights. And amongst the lunacy is lucidity. Beneath the craziness is a very fine message indeed – and the balance is just right. Storytelling is threatened. It can be saved if there is enough belief in its power. The four performers are working on two levels. There is enough for us jaded adults, but they are aware that for many in the audience, this show might be their first experience of live theatre. Part of the pleasure of pantomime is watching the expressions of the younger audience members. It’s safe to say that these guys are now hooked. Job done!”
The Spy in the Stalls
Patience / Charles Court Opera at Wilton’s Music Hall 2022
“Savournin’s work in the skill of the reimagining and the projection of the text is perfection itself. You won’t see a better opera / operetta production this year.”
The Arts Desk
“It’s just a wonderful opera and this is a marvellous production”
Broadway World
“In fact, what really strikes one is that Charles Court Opera really appreciates how to make Gilbert and Sullivan work. The dialogue is beautifully spoken and often very funny, and the whole production has energy and that elusive quality: style.”
LondonTheatre1
“The prize for the Summer’s most ecstatic audience is easy…The cast was on fire, one of those fabulous ensemble performances where everything sparks and creates a delirious momentum.” Pick of the Fringe
Opera Now
“John Savournin’s approach here, as elsewhere, is a modest but triumphant reassertion of balance – allowing the tried and tested structure of the music and drama to come through with help from some tasteful and discreet updating.”
Plays To See
“When ‘Patience’ opened in 1881, Gilbert thought the show’s appeal would prove just as ephemeral as its subject matter and wouldn’t be appreciated in years to come. Thankfully, Charles Court Opera have proved him wrong with their classy, timeless, imaginative and virtuosic production.”
The Spy in the Stalls
HMS Pinafore / Opera Holland Park 2022
“What a glorious show it is: infernal nonsense of the best kind.”
Bachtrack
“When so many directors tinker with the text because of a fundamental lack of trust, it is so refreshing to find one who still relies on the original to deliver the goods.”
British Theatre
“John Savournin has never lost sight of the humour – no, it’s not exactly that, it’s the joy – of both the source material and the performances he brings out of his cast, led, as ever, by his own example. It’s all such fun!”
Broadway World
“John Savournin’s production is good-natured and respectful, and the simplicity of the design and directness of the delivery are both stylish and charming.”
Opera Today
“…a show that is poised and graceful, relying on acutely observed gesture and precision timing above extravagant props or absurdist flights of fancy.”
Opera Wire
“Savournin as a director and performer of Gilbert and Sullivan possesses an incredibly safe pair of hands.”
The Reviews Hub
“…a trim, affectionate staging with an athletic and well-drilled cast throwing the humour into crisp relief.”
The Spectator
“John Savournin knows the Gilbert and Sullivan territory as well as (if not better than) anyone else in the business…”
The Stage
Beowulf: An Epic Panto / Charles Court Opera 2021
“Savournin has crafted another genuinely heartwarming morality tale with a panto top-coat. In an entertaining and subversive way, it champions themes of love, image and acceptance.”
The Stage
The Pirates of Penzance / Opera Holland Park 2021
“Savournin as director had a whole lot of stage to use and a tonne of ideas to fill it with.”
Bachtrack
“Multi-skilled John Savournin, starring as the Pirate King and also director of the two-act comic opera, immerses us in a Toy Story-like world where a child’s birthday gifts – a Playmobil pirate ship, wind-up toy soldier and brightly coloured bricks – are brought to life.”
Broadway World
“Director John Savournin presented a colourful and energetic show, full of charm, some of it traditional, some new, but all entirely in keeping with G & S traditions.”
The Daily Mail
“(Opera Holland Park’s) minimal, witty staging of The Pirates of Penzance, excellently sung, came as close to cracking my stony, Gilbert-and-Sullivan-resistant heart as anyone could. John Savournin directed, and also sang a mean Pirate King…”
The Observer
“Director John Savournin, who also sings the role of the Pirate King, is no stranger to directing comic opera…He offers an intuitive and charming production concept.”
OperaWire
“John Savournin’s joyous, multi coloured production for Opera Holland Park (is) exuberant, inventive and oddly touching.”
The Spectator
“Multi-talented John Savournin – a suave Pirate King – also directs with a security of tone that raises laughs in all the right places and yet ensures the logic of Gilbert’s plot, however absurd, makes sense.”
The Stage
“It’s rare in London to see and hear Gilbert and Sullivan performed with such dazzle and panache as this.”
The Sunday Times
Express G & S / Charles Court Opera 2021
“A whistle stop jaunt through the G & S canon in 75 minutes. Five Stars.”
Iolanthe / Charles Court Opera 2021
“Beautifully delivered, effectively and rather touchingly pointing up the little observations Gilbert intended about the follies and absurdities we are such avid heirs to…”
Opera Now
Cinderella / Opera North
“Pasticcio is alive and well in the hands of Savournin…This is very much Savournin’s show…arranging, writing and directing three singers and two puppets, accompanied by violin and piano…an extremely valuable tool to encourage future audiences”
Opera
“John Savournin’s clever adaptations of operas often involve a change of focus… Savournin crafts a coherent, pleasingly silly, plot. Viardot supplies Cinderella’s dreams, Rossini the comic patter, Massenet the magic tree and the Prince as a travesty role and Rodgers and Hammerstein the big romantic moment with “Do I love you because you’re beautiful?”
The Reviews Hub
Snow White in the Seven Months of Lockdown / Charles Court Opera
“In the middle of the bleakest holiday season in recent memory, we don’t have to look any further than ‘Snow White in the Seven Months of Lockdown’ for an inoculation of positive energy, humour and joy.”
London Living Large
“Charming and bombastic, this production rises well to the challenges of not having the usual sort of audience interaction that pantomime is known for.”
LondonTheatre1
“Once again, Charles Court Opera have delivered a pantomime that showcases all the talent involved brilliantly to offer real festive entertainment.”
Love London Love Culture
“Lockdown has clearly set the creative juices flowing…a panto like no other…the Charles Court Opera Company’s annual foray into pantomime has always been very much into a world of their own with at its heart arguably the best pantomime dame around – the multi-talented beanpole that is John Savournin, singer serious but dame delirious.”
ReviewsGate
“This year they have been forced to work behind closed doors, but their boundless, chaotic imaginations have not been restrained in the least and again, they have created a unique show dressed up in their distinctive style.”
Spy in the Stalls
“The writing is witty and well thought out, but leaves enough room for those classic panto gags that keep us coming back year after year.”
Theatre Weekly
The Magic Flute / Charles Court Opera
“Director John Savournin has created a lively, accessible and stripped-down Flute for Iford which gives the lovers Tamino and Pamina a clear choice between the superstitious tribal culture of the Queen of the Night, and the humanist ethos of Enlightenment philosophy pioneered by the philosopher-sorcerer Sarastro.”
Bachtrack
“The director, John Savournin, has an impressive track record, both as director and performer, in Gilbert & Sullivan productions, so has had a good deal of practice in being creatively silly, but this joyous opera at the King’s Head must be his most glorious production yet.”
The Express
The Magic Flute / Charles Court Opera at Iford Arts
“Savournin at his most resourceful.”
The Arts Desk
Do I Hear a Waltz? / Park Theatre
“Savournin can be proud of a well-rehearsed, very well-sung interpretation.”
Music Theatre Review
“There is a refreshing simplicity and lack of fuss about John Savournin’s direction.”
The Telegraph
The Barber of Seville / Charles Court Opera at Iford Arts
“Making a virtue out of this challengingly small stage area, the sense of eavesdropping never leaves the audience thanks to having to peer between the arches of the cloisters, and director John Savournin maximises this to the full.”
Arbutrian
“…an ensemble cast who, under the direction of John Savournin, worked exceptionally well.”
Opera
The Gondoliers: National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company
“John Savournin’s production gives you exactly what you need.”
The Arts Desk
H. M. S. Pinafore / Charles Court Opera
“Charles Court Opera’s irresistible staging of Gilbert & Sullivan’s nautical comedy directed v John Savournin…”
The Stage
“Savournin’s staging is a winning blend of Benny Hill knockabout, operatic parody and music hall song-and-dance.”
The Standard
The Mikado / Charles Court Opera
“Gilbert and Sullivan wrote The Mikado during a national fixation with all things Japanese, but in his infinitely inventive production, director John Savournin enjoys to the full the work’s universal strands: the idiocy of pompous self-regard, the resourcefulness of lovers and the madness of legislation and procedure.”
Culture Whisper
“John Savournin directs with surety and panache. The production simply cannot be bettered.”
The Spy in the Stalls
“From the opening explosion of energy this is a show that knows where it’s heading, and that’s to five-star heaven. Savournin’s direction never misses a beat.”
WhatsOnStage
Ruddigore / Charles Court Opera
“Charles Court Opera’s dynamic and brightly-sung production, created by actor-director John Savournin, captures our attention from the outset and holds it joyfully until the rousing final chorus.”
Bachtrack
“CCO’s fast moving production is directed by John Savournin who has taken 1950s Hammer horror movies as his inspiration. Somehow, the intermittent menacing rumbles of thunder and eerie lighting underline the Hammer connection. The concept works brilliantly, particularly with such a talented cast.”
Wharfdale Observer
Trial by Jury / Opera North
“John Savournin’s production of Trial by Jury was a delight from start to finish.”
Opera
“First mention must go to director John Savournion and movement director Tim Claydon who ensured that a feverish energy was maintained throughout with a range of contrapuntal, virtuosic stage that business that was bewildering.”
Seen and Heard International
“All you really need to know about the veteran Savoyard John Savournin’s 1920s updating of Trial by Jury is that it’s a delight; a screwball P.G. Wodehouse world of blustering bobbies, stuffed chihuahuas, tweedy jurors and cakewalking judges in straw boaters, cast and conducted to sparkling perfection…It’s the best Trial by Jury I have ever seen.”
The Spectator
