Review: ITCH, Opera Holland Park

Opera Holland Park has never shied away from audacious programming, and with Jonathan Dove’s Itch, it plunges boldly into radioactive territory—literally. Originally seen here in 2023 and based on Simon Mayo’s YA novel about a teenage element hunter who stumbles upon a potentially world-altering discovery, this opera bubbles with energy, invention and musical firepower.

Visually dazzling and musically engaged, it’s a thrilling experiment. If only the libretto had been handled with the same precision as the atomic weights on Itchingham Lofte’s periodic table.

Let’s start with the positives which, like the outer shell of an electron, are plentiful and energetic. Dove’s score is a masterstroke, fizzing with colour and urgency, slipping easily between shimmering strings and tense percussive surges. At its core, there is a driving pulse of adolescent obsession and moral clarity rendered in crisp motifs. There’s even a clever recurring sonic signature for the mysterious Element 126—like radiation made audible, it pulses ominously through the orchestra with a menace that shines out into the night sky. 

Under Matt Scott Rogers’ baton, the City of London Sinfonia responds with exhilarating vitality. Dove’s orchestration often skates close to the cinematic—an apt decision, given the genre-bending ambitions of the work. There are playful hints of Britten’s Young Person’s Guide To The Orchestra, the spiky menace of John Adams, and even flecks of John Williams in the high-octane chase scenes. The musical idiom is contemporary without alienating, accessible yet complex.

Director Stephen Barlow stages Itch with bold dynamics and a firm grasp of momentum. He keeps the action fluid, skipping from scene to scene and resisting the urge to let exposition drag the pace. He makes clever use of Holland Park’s unusual set design by having characters carefully wander down through the pit past playing musicians. There’s a distinct reverence for Mayo's original YA books but no condescension; with its occasional bursts of fruity language and physical violence, this definitely isn’t “opera for kids”; it’s opera that just happens to include them.

Frankie Bradshaw’s design is worth its own standing ovation. Her set conjures a three-dimensional periodic table—a visual playground of metal grates, scientific clutter, and luminous elemental symbols that glow ominously whenever danger looms. Coupled with Jake Wiltshire’s laser-sharp lighting and Jack Henry James Fox’s slick projections, the stage becomes both science lab and battleground, bristling with threat and promise.

Even those who view this opera as a cynical YA adaptation intended purely to bring in a younger audience and their parents to Holland Park will be cheering on the winning central pair. This time around, Xavier Hetherington takes over the title role from Adam Temple-Smith and is an arresting presence as the nerdy teen on a mission to collect every element. His Itch is a mix of boyish curiosity and ethical gravitas beyond his years, and he sings with a clean, unfussy tenor that lifts Dove’s music to its natural pitch. His duets with the returning Natasha Agarwal (who plays sister Jack with sharp comic timing and a gorgeously bright soprano) anchor the show emotionally. They have the vibe of real siblings—squabbling, supportive, and occasionally brilliant under pressure.

Rebecca Bottone shows off her versatility in two contrasting roles: the warm, pragmatic mother Jude, and the villainous corporate puppetmaster Roshanna Wing. She has more time as the latter but excels at both, switching between maternal concern and icy menace with ease. Nicholas Garrett’s Nathaniel Flowerdew is a wonderfully boo-worthy corporate baddie painted with delicious malevolence—a sort of Bond villain with a PhD. Dove gives him some of the most memorable material, and Garrett eats it up.

So what, then, dulls the glow of this otherwise effervescent production? Unfortunately, it’s the book—Alasdair Middleton’s libretto—which too often clangs where it should sing. Middleton has won praise in the past with The Enchanted Pig and The Hackney Chronicles but here the text is saddled with plot holes, unnecessary detail and unwieldy dialogue. Early on, Itch’s father Nicholas mentions that he has a secret. Is the secret ever revealed? No. Does this impact the story? Also no, but Nicholas’ mysterious ability to track his son deep underground in the finale is never satisfactorily explained. 

While Tom Lehrer famously made light, humorous work of the elements, there are too few moments of levity in Itch to keep a younger (and young at heart) audience bonded to these characters. Lines that might read fine on the page land with a thud when sung. Proclamations that “the half-life is unstable!” and “we must bury it deep!” may pass in prose, but in an opera house, they invite eye-rolls rather than gasps. Environmental aspects and invocations to Gaia are pointed to rather than grasped. For a story that hinges on a world-altering discovery and clandestine corporate warfare, the dramatic language is strangely inert. The libretto offers no poetic ballast, no metaphorical lift—it just describes.

And yet, despite the book’s limitations, Itch remains a compelling and worthwhile evening. Dove’s music lifts the libretto off the page, the cast imbue their characters with heart and nuance, and the production design crackles with inventiveness. The opera doesn’t talk down to its audience—especially younger viewers—but trusts them to grasp the weight of the ethical quandaries on display.

Opera Holland Park should be applauded for returning to this ambitious work, especially one that speaks to pressing issues like environmental responsibility, scientific integrity, and the moral complications of discovery. In a cultural moment overflowing with post-apocalyptic despair, Itch dares to present a teenage hero who believes in doing the right thing, not because it’s easy, but because it matters.

If this fills the gap in science-based opera until Phelim McDermott debuts his upcoming take on Phillip Glass and Robert Wilson’s Einstein On The Beach, so be it. This is a work with a conscience, one that just needs a tighter story and a little more verbal polish to shine as brightly as its radioactive core.

Itch continues at Opera Holland Park until 13 June

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