This production was described as "one of Jones's unalloyed successes",[1] while his 1993 Ring Cycle at Covent Garden came in for much criticism: "[it] was greeted with bemusement, even contempt: one paper called it "a monument of garish flippancy and banal cartoon caricature".
As a result, ENO's decision to entrust Jones with their new Ring Cycle in 2021 "raised some eyebrows", according to Nicholas Kenyon's review in the Telegraph.
[3] For the Royal Shakespeare Company, Jones directed A Midsummer Night's Dream, which provoked critical reactions such as the comments "Dream world ruined by this vandal's romp" and "Miserably undercast, grotesquely overdesigned, sloppily directed and lacks the following: theatricality, comedy and magic" which appeared as part of The Guardian's interview.
[1] Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Tales from the Vienna Woods by Odon von Horvath—in a new version by David Harrower—were presented by the National Theatre in London.
[4] In 2011, Jones directed David Harrower's Government Inspector (after Gogol's Revisor of 1836) at Warwick Arts Centre and London's Young Vic Theatre; the production featured Julian Barratt and Doon Mackichan.
Rolando Villazón sang Hoffmann, having returned to vocal form after difficulties, and Diana Damrau took the roles of Olympia, Antonia, Giulietta and, mutely, Stella.