English National Opera: Caligula at London Coliseum

ENO's production of 'Caligula' based upon Albert Camus' existentialist response to the rise of Hitler and Stalin, but as topical as ever in the era of Saddam Hussein and Colonel Gaddafi. Detlev Glanert's 2006 opera offers a disturbing insight into the self-destructive logic driving a decadent and dangerous dictatorship. When his adored sister's death awakes him to a realisation of life's essential absurdity, the Roman emperor Caligula embarks upon an orgy of sexual depravity and sadistic cruelty in an apparently insane attempt to free himself from the shackles of mortality and morality.