Beatrice and Benedick
Reviews of the 2000 Berkeley Opera production
and David Scott Marley's adaptation
"Very entertaining"
"Beatrice and Benedick," the last great score by Hector
Berlioz, took Shakespeare's bantering couple from "Much
Ado About Nothing" and turned their merry war into a
delicious, often touching French musical comedy. Now
David Scott Marley has adapted the text back into
English, beefing up the score with music from the heroic
"Benvenuto Cellini" and restoring most of the play's
original plot. The witty result opened Friday night at
the intimate Julia Morgan Theater in Berkeley. It was
a pleasure.