Opera
The Turn of the Screw, ENO, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - one dimension, not fourTuesday, 26 June 2018
Opera and music theatre have set the birds shrilling in Regent's Park before in the shape of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess – a very forgettable production – and Sondheim's Into the Woods – much better, and a score which can give any 20th century opera a... Read more... |
Partenope, Iford Arts review - a midsummer night's dream of a Handel comedyTuesday, 26 June 2018
Rejected by London’s Royal Academy of Music in 1726 on grounds of frivolity, Partenope is the ultimate Handelian rom-com – a comedy whose intriguing is carried out with a smile, a swagger and a sparkle in the eye. But what raised eyebrows in the... Read more... |
La Traviata, Longborough Festival review - muddled director, vocal mixed bagMonday, 25 June 2018
One wearies of quarrelling with opera directors’ concepts. But what’s the alternative? To ignore or acquiesce in crude, approximate reimaginings that, like Daisy Evans's new La Traviata at Longborough, stuff a work any old how into some snappy,... Read more... |
The Abduction from the Seraglio, The Grange Festival review - enjoyable if conventional productionMonday, 25 June 2018
Just as the Last Night of the Proms is an end-of-term party with a concert tacked on, The Grange Festival (like other similar venues) offers a massive picnic interspersed with some opera. Unlike the Proms, however, where anyone can get in wearing... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Paris - following in the footsteps of GounodSunday, 24 June 2018
It’s a truism that history is written by the victors, but nowhere in classical music is the argument made more persuasively than in the legacy and reputation of Charles Gounod. In a year in which you can hardly move for Bernstein and Debussy-related... Read more... |
The Path to Heaven, RNCM, Manchester review - tragedy, truth, passionFriday, 22 June 2018
Adam Gorb’s The Path to Heaven, with libretto by Ben Kaye, is his longest work to date (almost two hours’ running time without interval) and on a story that could hardly be more tragic – the Holocaust. Its premiere at the Royal Northern College of... Read more... |
Kiss Me, Kate, Opera North, London Coliseum review - Cole Porter delivered in true company styleThursday, 21 June 2018
First palpable hit of the evening: a full orchestra in the pit under hyper-alert Opera North stalwart James Holmes, saxophones deliciously rampant. Second hit: they've got the miking of the voices right (very rare in West End shows). Third: the... Read more... |
Enter theartsdesk / h Club Young Influencer of the Year awardTuesday, 19 June 2018
Are you a young blogger, vlogger or writer in the field of the arts, books and culture? If so, we've a competition for you to enter.The Hospital Club’s annual h Club100 awards celebrate the most influential and innovative people working in the UK’s... Read more... |
Falstaff, Garsington Opera review - Sir John under pressureMonday, 18 June 2018
All those pranks, set-ups, fake letters and disguises, they just keep coming thick and fast in Verdi’s Falstaff. The score has irresistible energy and momentum. The composer made sure in his last opera that when the fantasies, schemes and hopes of... Read more... |
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill, Opera North, City Varieties Music Hall review - life as a cabaretMonday, 18 June 2018
Peer at the small print and it’s clear that Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill is actually a spruced-up repackaging of a show originally devised by Gene Lerner and arranger Newton Wayland, about whom Opera North’s programme tells us nothing. The... Read more... |
Mamzer Bastard, Royal Opera, Hackney Empire review - inert Hasidic music-dramaFriday, 15 June 2018
Striking it lucky with a successful new opera is a rare occurrence, though every company has a duty to keep on trying. The Royal Opera hit the jackpot with 4.48 Psychosis, a highly original approach to Sarah Kane's profound and authentic play by... Read more... |
Acis and Galatea, English National Opera, Lilian Baylis House review - Handel for the hashtag generationTuesday, 12 June 2018
If you go to ENO’s Acis and Galatea expecting a grassy knoll draped decoratively with a Watteau shepherdess or two then you may be disappointed. Launched in 2017, the company’s reliably punchy Studio Live strand (stripped-back, small-scale, off-site... Read more... |
