Tchaikovsky: Child of Glass at Opera Holland Park

The orchestral players and conductors of the 2026 Opera Holland Park series have a brief but well-earned late-season break for three performances of Tama Matheson’s Tchaikovsky: Child of Glass. Decidedly not an opera, this wholly linear biographical play centred around the great Russian composer features many of his finest works, performed incidentally – sometimes as underscore, sometimes in recital – on a prominently positioned piano by the celebrated Australian concert pianist (and also music director for this project) Jayson Gillham. It’s a great deal of playing, which Gillham takes to valiantly, and the quality of the arrangements – several produced by the pianist himself – is high, given the limits imposed by the practice of reducing Tchaikovsky’s rich orchestral scores to two hands on one piano. Some moments, however, such as the climactic love theme from Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, fell short of Tchaikovsky’s intentions despite Gillham’s best efforts. The works’ integration into the play is splendidly done, their interwoven arrival and departure fitting into the whole with a pleasing grace. In some cases, the composer’s music is presented entirely unabridged, and the play has been moulded expressly and sensitively around it, demonstrating striking reverence to the project’s subject.

There is a charming authenticity to this performance, thanks not only to the continual presence of insect and bird life within the tented venue and the tonal struggles of a heat-stricken piano, but also to a script both cosy and wry, bearing humour well balanced with poignance. Within it, the title character’s extensive soliloquising, delivered with invariable elegance by Matheson, explores the significant themes of the composer’s life with deftness and intensity; pursuit of artistic inspiration, episodes of paralysing ennui and, most particularly, grappling with his homosexuality and the confusion, guilt, denial of self – even exasperation with the Creator – that that, for Tchaikovsky, entailed. While the performance was generally witty, a few of the comedic interjections were surprisingly juvenile and, as a result, failed to land with the audience.

The jumbo staging, evidently awaiting grander projects in the evenings to come, felt quite incongruous for this play’s drawing-room-esque purposes, but the decision in this setting to mic up the cast and piano (typically not the case in operatic instances) was – so to speak – a sound one. Alongside Matheson on stage appeared two well-employed utility actors, Suzy Kohane and Oliver Holland, and ballet soloist Téo Dubreuil, all three of whom must have taken on two dozen roles in the telling of Tchaikovsky’s colourful life. It must be noted that the continual presence of a gifted dancer on a spacious stage wasn’t exactly capitalised upon. Despite this, Tchaikovsky: Child of Glass is a highly engaging passion project that has been brought to life with simple elegance.

Will Snell
Photos: Rachel Medina

Tchaikovsky: Child of Glass was at Opera Holland Park. For further information, visit the theatre’s website here.

Watch the trailer for Tchaikovsky: Child of Glass at Opera Holland Park here: