Sometimes a review is easy to write because you leave the theatre with a head full of melodies, unforgettable voices, and moments you already know you’ll remember for years. And then there are evenings like this one.

It all started with a message from someone I know. “Agamennone is a bit like bel canto,” they told me.

Well, if you know me, you know that’s the kind of sentence that immediately catches my attention.

For once, I wasn’t travelling across Europe chasing Verdi, Puccini, or some crazy opera adventure. For once, I was actually at home in Switzerland. Bern is only about ninety minutes away from Lausanne, so I thought: why not? Let’s discover something new.

And honestly, discovering new works is important. We can’t (can) spend our lives only listening to the same twenty operas, even if I would happily spend the rest of my life between Otello, La Forza del Destino and Tosca.

So on Saturday evening, I headed to Bern for Agamennone.

And unfortunately, I have to be honest: this simply wasn’t for me.

Not even remotely.

Before the performance, I did a little research and discovered that the composer studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Seeing Verdi’s name attached to anything immediately makes me curious, and I genuinely expected to hear something that would somehow connect with the operatic tradition I love so much.

Instead, what I experienced felt much closer to experimental contemporary theatre than to opera.

Of course, this is only my personal opinion. Taste is subjective. Art should challenge us, surprise us, sometimes even upset us.

But throughout the evening, I struggled to find anything that connected me emotionally to what was happening on stage.

The music never really grabbed me.

The vocal writing never managed to move me.

The dramatic structure felt distant.

To make things even more complicated, the opera was sung in Italian but surtitled in German. The programme handed to me at the entrance was also in German. As someone whose German is, let’s say, very far from perfect, I often found myself disconnected from what was happening dramatically.

I stayed until the end, of course. There was no interval, and I hate disturbing people around me by leaving during a performance.

But I spent much of the evening wondering what exactly I was watching.

For me, opera begins with emotion.

It begins with melody.

It begins with voices carrying human feelings in a way that words alone cannot.

Here, I felt like I was attending an artistic experiment rather than an opera performance.

Again, that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

In fact, judging by the attendance, plenty of people clearly disagree with me. The performances are attracting audiences, and that’s fantastic.

Maybe this production will speak to you in ways it never spoke to me.

Maybe you’ll discover something fascinating that completely escaped me.

And that’s the beauty of live performance.

What I will absolutely praise, however, is the courage of Bern State Opera.

Many theatres play it safe. Bern regularly takes risks, commissions new works, and gives audiences opportunities to discover something outside the standard repertoire.

Even when those risks don’t work for me personally, I respect the ambition.

One element I genuinely enjoyed was the spectacular central walkway that stretched from the orchestra area deep into the theatre. Visually, it was striking and created some memorable stage pictures. It is the kind of idea I’d actually love to see used in more traditional productions in the future.

So no, Agamennone was not my cup of tea.

Not even close.

But I will never criticise a theatre for trying something different, and I will certainly continue travelling to Bern, a house that has given me many wonderful evenings over the years.

Sometimes you discover a masterpiece.

Sometimes you discover that contemporary experimental opera is definitely not your thing.

Saturday evening was very much the second option.