Opera
Das Rheingold, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterThursday, 01 December 2016
With two of the biggest parts of the tetralogy already behind them, it might have seemed that Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé would aim simply at as near a perfect recording-cum-concert of Das Rheingold as possible, to get one more in the can and head... Read more... |
Alice's Adventures Under Ground, BarbicanTuesday, 29 November 2016
Having musicalised the madness in the method of Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, what would that wackiest of composers Gerald Barry turn to next? Why, dear child, what else but the method in madness of Lewis Carroll's Alice books. Except... Read more... |
Large, Hudson Shad, BBCSO, Gaffigan, BarbicanThursday, 24 November 2016
Has there ever been a more pertinent time to revive the poetic mythologies of Brecht and Weill? The writer said that the good-life-for-dollars city of Mahagonny was not exclusively an American state of mind and should be set in any country where it'... Read more... |
DiDonato, Il Pomo d'Oro, Emelyanchev, BarbicanWednesday, 23 November 2016
Most singers give recitals, and very nice they are too. But there are some – Bartoli, Florez, Netrebko, Terfel – who really put on a show. Mezzo Joyce DiDonato might just be the queen of this select band, and between the projections, smoke, sound... Read more... |
Manon Lescaut, Royal OperaWednesday, 23 November 2016
Jonathan Kent’s Manon Lescaut is back for a first revival at Covent Garden. It’s a gaudy affair, and seems calculated to provoke. But there are some interesting ideas here, and the musical standards remain high, even from the lesser-known names of... Read more... |
ENO's Marvellous Miller in picturesSunday, 20 November 2016
It should have been unmodified rapture: a gathering of English National Opera team members old and new celebrating the doyen of the company's best-selling productions. And, as has always happened with the artistic side of the company, this loving... Read more... |
Simplicius Simplicissimus, Independent OperaTuesday, 15 November 2016
“Not as a pleasurable play, but…an urgent message…” So composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann described his caustic chamber opera Simplicius Simplicissimus, receiving its UK premiere at Sadler’s Wells 81 years late. Five years before Brecht used the Thirty... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Mezzo Anne Sofie von OtterSaturday, 12 November 2016
What's a world-renowned mezzo-soprano in her middle years to do? Slimline of voice, tall and handsome in person with piercing and slightly intimidating blue eyes, Stockholm-born Anne Sofie von Otter isn't likely to sing what is known in the operatic... Read more... |
Lulu, English National OperaThursday, 10 November 2016
After a day of sheer pain, would it be endless night or cathartic relief at ENO? Both, must be the answer, and much more, all at once. Iconoclastic Frank Wedekind's "earth-spirit" Lulu, exploited as a street-child but now able to turn the tables for... Read more... |
Oreste, Royal Opera, Wilton's Music HallWednesday, 09 November 2016
Human sacrifice and long-term reconciliation are serious matters for music-drama. Not that you'd know it from Handel's pasticcio or confectionary of previous operatic hits, nor from Gerard Jones's one-note production. For strip-cartoon violence... Read more... |
Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Royal OperaTuesday, 08 November 2016
The Tales of Hoffmann is a young man’s piece, full of melodic energy and helter-skelter narrative thrust. We tumble from love affair to love affair, lusting, losing and leaving three women in barely three hours, before taking peevish refuge in the... Read more... |
Maria de Rudenz, Wexford Festival OperaTuesday, 01 November 2016
Given the horrors lurking in the composer’s more familiar operas, the warning that Maria de Rudenz is “perhaps the darkest of Donizetti’s tragedies” carries no little weight. A Gothic spectacular with echoes of The Castle of Otranto and Matthew... Read more... |
