We trust the word is not too forthright, but ‘puerile’ might legitimately be levied against the new opera Berenice by Johannes Maria Staud. Premièred on 12 May this year as part of the 9th Munich Biennale for New Music Theatre at the city's Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, this first attempt at the genre by the Austrian-born composer Staud renders, blow by blow, the short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. The libretto, by Durs Grünbein, sticks closely to the famous writer's narrative like epoxy resin. Played without an interval, Berenice comes in at just under two hours; it seemed like two days.