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
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
