Opera
Werther, Royal OperaSaturday, 25 June 2016
All 23 of Massenet's mature operas boast memorably melodious quarters of an hour and fastidious orchestration, so why Werther’s special status as a repertoire staple? Three or four great arias may have been enough to clinch it. There’s also the fact... Read more... |
Jenůfa, English National OperaFriday, 24 June 2016
ENO's new artistic director Daniel Kramer must regret having gone on BBC Radio 4's Start the Week to talk about suspending Janáček "and other obscures" from the company's repertoire for several seasons to come. Good God, if Jenůfa, Janáček's first... Read more... |
Idomeneo, Garsington OperaThursday, 23 June 2016
Natural disaster, in the shape of a metaphorical sea-monster ravaging classical Crete, might make a director's imagination work overtime on Mozart's first, jagged masterpiece. Alas, only unnatural disasters have been inflicted upon us in productions... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Holland FestivalSunday, 19 June 2016
The Holland Festival is one of the greats. It has a British director, the articulate Ruth Mackenzie, formerly of the Chichester Festival and the cultural Olympiad, now into her second year. It’s the same age as Edinburgh and Avignon – 70 in 2017 –... Read more... |
Don Giovanni, Classical Opera, Page, Cadogan HallSaturday, 18 June 2016
Mozart operas on period instruments – it’s hardly a new idea, but it’s still the exception rather than the rule. The 18th–century sound has a lot to offer in Don Giovanni, as Ian Page and his Classical Opera Company demonstrated this evening. Clear... Read more... |
Be With Me Now, Britten Studio, SnapeThursday, 16 June 2016
As the hand-held credits popped up on screen to pianist and musical director Manoj Kamps's superb quartet arrangement of Mozart's Magic Flute Overture, the European Union's Culture Programme logo brought a spontaneous burst of applause. Not the norm... Read more... |
Alberto Remedios: 'his natural instrument obeyed his inner thoughts with ease'Wednesday, 15 June 2016
When I sang Isolde to Alberto’s Tristan at English National Opera all those years ago, it was a joy to hear such wonderful tenor sounds in my ears, my heart and my soul. It was always difficult for him to memorise his work and up until the first... Read more... |
The Beggar's Opera, University of BirminghamWednesday, 15 June 2016
Memo to self: never read the director’s programme essay. Jacob Dorrell, director of the University of Birmingham’s summer production of Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera at the Barber Institute, explains: “I wanted to bring to the Barber stage a... Read more... |
The Iris Murder, Hebrides Ensemble, EdinburghTuesday, 14 June 2016
It just goes to demonstrate the breadth and ambition of the Hebrides Ensemble’s work. For its 25th anniversary, the Scottish new music group (although its output delves a bit further back in time than that description might suggest) had commissioned... Read more... |
The Cunning Little Vixen, GlyndebourneMonday, 13 June 2016
Is The Cunning Little Vixen a jolly children’s pantomime, or is it a searching study of issues of life and death, Man and Nature? The answer, naturally, is that it’s both. Children dress up as animals, and sing and prance about. But at the same time... Read more... |
La Bohème, Opera Holland ParkSunday, 12 June 2016
Boy meets girl; girl and boy fall in love; boy loses girl. In true bohemian fashion, La bohème can lay its operatic head anywhere from Paris to Peshawar, in any era from 90s punk to the Belle Epoque, and still make sense. What matters are the... Read more... |
Illuminations, Tynan, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Snape MaltingsSaturday, 11 June 2016
Nothing galvanises an audience quite like physical risk. As soprano Sarah Tynan rose on a hoop into the darkness, intoning the final words of "Départ" from Britten's song cycle Les Illuminations, you could almost hear her heart race. Beneath, a... Read more... |
