 Opera Review: Mixed results from Glyndebourne's new Figaro Every new production of Figaro at Glyndebourne and this is the ninth new production since 1934 is a special event.Whether or not the spirit of la folle journe ... more> |
Opera Review: A new production of Britten's Billy Budd at ENO Brittens Billy Budd tells such a tragic tale that it is harrowing to experience even if one just reads the libretto (by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, adapted from the story by Herman Melville). There is no light relief at all in the story, which centres around the destruction of young Billy by the sadistic Claggart but also portrays cruelty as... more> |
| Opera Review: Luisotti and Furlanetto make Verdi's Attila shine This production of Attila at the San Francisco Opera represented one of the most precious operatic experiences for this particular member of the audience. The singers displayed an exceptional level of harmony with one another and with the orchestra. Moreover, maestro Nicola Luisotti's passionate reading of the score revealed one surprise after another... more> |
Opera review: Cosi fan tutte at Opera Holland Park All six principal singers were excellent. They sounded ideal in their roles even though Dorabellas soprano part was taken by mezzo-soprano Julia Riley (whose looks and singing style reminded me, rightly or wrongly, of a young Felicity Lott). Tenor Andrew Staples... more> |
| Opera Review: Nixon in China successfully debuts at the San Francisco Opera On Friday 8 June, the San Francisco Opera presented the long-awaited Bay Area debut of Nixon in China, the first opera by one of the most acclaimed contemporary composers, John Adams. After twenty-five years since its premiere, this work by Adams with a libretto by Alice Goodman remains equally controversial and popular. At the end of the performance... more> |
Review: Garsington takes on Vivaldi's Olympian L'Olimpiade LOlimpiade, Metastasios libretto of 1733 written 1340 years after the last of the ancient Olympic games provides the text for a pastoral opera with the background of the Olympic games. It is a play set in green outdoors with aristocratic characters, one of whom is disguised as a shepherdess. What better setting for such an opera than the new Wormsley... more> |
| Opera Review: Glanert's Caligula comes to ENO Detlev Glanerts opera on Albert Camus 1944 play Caligula, with a libretto by Hans-Ulrich Treichel,premiered to great acclaim in Frankfurt in 2006. Caligulas first UK production opened at the Coliseum last night in a new staging by much-admired theatre director Benedict Andrews... more> |
Opera Review: Nelly Miricioiu celebrates her 60th birthday with Donizetti's Maria Padilla Such was the display of vocal dexterity from Nelly Miricioiu as Maria and Marianne Cornetti as Ines in the Chelsea Opera Groups performance of Maria Padilla that by the end, it almost felt like the Olympics had come early. This extraordinary but almost unknown opera from Donizettis maturity... more> |
| Opera review: Madam Butterfly at ENO There are certain operas in the canon that mysteriously need nothing else except their music to successfully compel audiences. As one of the most consistently performed since its (fifth) revision, Puccinis Madama Butterfly certainly ranks within this selection however ironically since operas are by nature more than "just music."... more> |
Opera Review: A new Falstaff for Covent Garden Verdis final opera is a consummate blend of comedy, shades of melodrama, and self-parody. It takes a truly disciplined production to manifest some of these associations, and Robert Carsons crowd pleaser at the Royal Opera takes great strides toward this difficult goal. It helped, though, that the singers... more> |
| Opera review: La boheme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Productions of Puccinis works these days inevitably raise questions about operatic realism or, as its more commonly known, verismo. At first glance, operatic realism doesnt appear to be a very complicated issue. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, composers and librettists (of the giovane scoula)... more> |
Opera Review: Wagner's Flying Dutchman at ENO Oscar Wilde famously said of The Old Curiosity Shop: 'One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without dissolving into tears ... of laughter'. The same might be said of The Flying Dutchman where, in one of the... more> |
| Opera review: Willy Decker's Traviata at the Met starring Dessay Willy Deckerwasn't the first man to try and gain a better perspective of the courtesan Violetta by examining what lay beneath the iconic red dress. But I have to wonder whether the German director's psychological undressing of the heroine in the present Met production has uncovered anything more revealing than his predecessors... more> |
Opera Review: A rare performance of Mozart's Il sogno di Scipione by Gotham Chamber Opera Il sogno di Scipione (The Dream of Scipio) was the fifth of Mozart's operas, composed (unbelievably) when he was 16. The libretto was written by Pietro Metastasio, after Cicero. It was presumably first performed... more> |
| Opera review: The European Premiere of Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest at the Barbican There may be some who, on hearing that the new opera by Gerald Barry is an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's landmark comic play, would give it a wide berth. Barry's music can be notoriously spiky and unpredictable; Wilde's text on the other hand is... more> |
Opera Review: The Collegiate Chorale perform The Mikado The Mikado is possibly one of the most frequently-played operettas world-wide. This season there was a new production at the Gärtnerplatz in Munich, among other venues. The reasons for its enduring popularity are not difficult to fathom... more> |
| Opera review: The London Premiere of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's Einstein on the Beach at the Barbican As operas go, Einstein on the Beach is a rich and strange one. No real characters, no plot, no narrative, no climaxes, no arias, no dialogue, no comedy, no tragedy and... more> |
Opera Review: Sir Colin Davis conducts Weber's Der Freischutz with the LSO Carl Maria von Webers Der Freischtz was sensational at its premire in 1821 and quickly became an international phenomenon rivaled only by the operas of Rossini. Although Freischtz was in several respects anticipated by Louis Spohrs Faust and E.T.A. Hoffmans Undine... more> |
| Opera Review: A gay reworking of Don Giovanni at London's Heaven nightclub Opera houses and nightclubs have more in common than one might think. In nineteenth-century Italy, it was common for Austrian authorities to take an interest in the programming of many houses, simply because a large part of the educated population congregated there and could be easily observed. Of course, these days systems of power are further decentralized and... more> |
Opera Review: La Fille du Regiment returns to Covent Garden with a new cast Laurent Pelly's 2007 production of La Fille Du Rgiment, now at its second revival at the Royal Opera House, is delightful entertainment... more> |
| Opera Review: A rare outing for Jakob Lenz at ENO During ENOs new production of Wolfgang Rihms chamber opera Jakob Lenz (1977-8), Andrew Shore, putting in an impressive turn in the title role, ends up getting dunked in an onstage pool of water no fewer than four times. New director on the block, Sam Brown, though, has good artistic reasons for this treatment of his more experienced leading man.The source for... more> |
Musical Review: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pipe Dream at the New York City Center Pipe Dream, which opened at the Shubert Theatre in the winter of 1955, is the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that preceded the TV spectacular, Cinderella, and Broadway's Flower Drum Song (1957). Based on the John Steinbeck story Sweet Thursday, the material, with its drifters... more> |
| Editorial: Musical diversity in Budapest Established in 1853, the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra is Hungary's oldest functioning orchestra. Drawn from musicians of the Hungarian State Opera, for many years it was Hungary's only professional orchestra. They worked with such distinguished composer-conductors... more> |
Opera Review: Soile Isokoski and Alice Coote in Der Rosenkavalier in Geneva Some forty years after its creation for the Bavarian State Opera, Otto Schenk's production of Der Rosenkavalier has found its way to Geneva Opera, where it will play in repertoire until 12 April.If there is relatively little new to say about a vintage production... more> |
| Opera Review: Rigoletto with John Eliot Gardiner in the pit at Covent Garden Since its premire in 1851, Verdis Rigoletto has remained an audience favorite for its catchy tunes and poignant treatment of a captivating story, one that resonates strongly even today. Often hailed as a revolutionary step "forward" in Verdis oeuvre, Rigoletto weaves several... more> |
Opera Review: Rameau's Acante et Cphise Operatic special occasion pieces usually die with their final curtain call, though the most notable exception is probably Rossinis Il viaggo a Reims, which stubbornly persists to this day. Interestingly, University College Opera (which has a long history of performing rare or new works) mounted a production... more> |
| Opera Review: Judith Weir's disappointing new Miss Fortune Whenever I see a new opera, I play a game. I simply ignore entirely the programme notes and synopsis. Often, this little bit of fun allows me to recapture the excitement of audience members past. To witness a new work in all its glory, experience the plot twists and turns, the text, and the music in the... more> |
Opera Review: The Guildhall's Midsummer Night's Dream The last outing of Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream on the London opera stage seemed to be more concerned with the composer's sexuality than with his witty masterpiece based on Shakespeare's play (May 2011, English National Opera). Once bitten twice shy, thus one could be forgiven for being slightly worried about other... more> |
| Opera Review: English National Opera's Death of Klinghoffer John Adams' and Alice Goodman's 1991 opera The Death of Klinghoffer has been trailed by controversy throughout its twenty-one year history. Scheduled performances at Glyndebourne and the Los Angeles Opera were cancelled after the stormy reception the opera received following its 1991 New York... more> |
Opera Review: Ernani live from the Met Undoubtedly for some, seeing opera live in cinemas is quite enjoyable. As I reclined in my large seat and munched on some popcorn at my nearest local cinema (Curzon Chelsea), I wondered if displaced opera was the way of the future. After all, there are serious advantages to watching opera in a cinema... more> |
| Opera Review: Rusalka comes to Covent Garden for the first time Rusalka has finally made it to Covent Garden, but, in Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito's wilfully shabby production, it has arrived in inexpressive and unlovely form. The boos and countering cheers that greeted the directorial team at the curtaineven though this was branded a new production, it was first seen in Salzburg in 2008... more> |
Opera Review: Silent Opera performs La boheme in the Old Vic Tunnels Silent Opera present La Bohme in the series of linked rooms that form the complex of tunnels under the approach to Waterloo Station. Trains rumble and clatter overhead, the venue shakes and echoes but - or so runs the concept, as set out in the programme blurb - you "walk around with a... more> |
| Opera Review: Raymond Gubbay's Aida at the Royal Albert Hall Verdi's Aida is extremely intertextual. Conditioned by the historical events surrounding its premire and, as an inevitable product of nineteenth-century Orientalism, scholars have fruitfully mined it for decades for both its historical and critical significance. The new production at the Royal Albert Hall... more> |
Opera Review: A stellar cast introduces Richard Jones' new production of Tales of Hoffmann to ENO Co-produced with the Bavarian State Opera and recently performed by that company, English National Opera now stages Richard Jones's take on Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann. Without doubt, the staging is entertaining and also thought provoking. However, perhaps some of Jones's messages... more> |
| Opera Review: Cast B of Don Giovanni at Covent Garden Most modern productions of Don Giovanni unsurprisingly highlight the works moral messages, and Francesca Zambellos production (the revival directed by Brbara Lluch) is a champion of this directorial tendency. As the curtain rises on the monolithic wall that serves as the entire... more> |
Opera Review: David McVicar's Figaro returns to the ROH Genuine laughter dominated the house at Covent Garden during this recent performance of Mozarts Le nozze di Figaro, perhaps to the dismay of those who were searching for "undercurrents of unresolved class tensions." The undercurrents were surely there, but, for me, were overshadowed by performers... more> |
| Opera Review: A stunning La traviata at Welsh National Opera With Valentine's Day just around the corner, WNO's revival of director David McVicar's 2009 La traviata (revival directed by Marie Lambert) comes just in time. What better way to mark this most romantic point in the calendar than Verdi's devastating melodrama? Indeed, the candle-lit set... more> |
Opera Review: Francesca Zambello's Don Giovanni returns to Covent Garden with Gerald Finley For this pair of ears, musicality at its best is the dominant feature of the Royal Opera House's current revival of Don Giovanni. Conductor Constantinos Carydis's knowledge of Mozart's score is highly impressive from every point...more> |
| Opera Review: Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier returns with Sarah Connolly and John Tomlinson at ENO Although right from the start it was intended to be the text for Strauss's opera, Hofmannsthal's compact and witty libretto for Der Rosenkavalier could easily function as a highly entertaining stand-alone play. Delivery of the dramatic concept with all... more> |
Opera Review: Jonathan Miller's Cosi fan tutte returns to Covent Garden Jonathan Miller's present-day production from 1995, once more in slightly updated revival at Covent Garden, rests on visual humour. Its repertoire of perfectly timed gestures, sartorial cross-referencing and delight in physical ... more> |
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