Opera
Falstaff, Royal OperaTuesday, 07 July 2015
It may only be a revival, but this is what the Royal Opera does best, above all in fielding a living legend of a Falstaff for Verdi's last masterpiece who’d probably be beyond the pockets of many other houses. Italian baritone, masterchef and... Read more... |
The Rape of Lucretia, GlyndebourneMonday, 06 July 2015
Britten’s first chamber opera is very much a Glyndebourne piece; its world premiere in the old festival theatre in July 1946 was also the festival’s inaugural post-war production. It brought into being the English Opera Group, and led soon... Read more... |
Albert Herring, Britten Theatre, Royal College of MusicFriday, 03 July 2015
Some of the best nights of opera to be had in London come courtesy of students. It’s not something we talk enough about, possibly because, with four major music colleges in the city, the quality is so high that the performers can (and are) judged as... Read more... |
Guillaume Tell, Royal OperaTuesday, 30 June 2015
There are two operatic types who should leave Rossini’s epic swansong for the stage well alone. One would usually be a conductor who ignores many of the notes written by a master at the height of his powers, since even the least dramatic numbers... Read more... |
Pappano's Classical Voices, BBC FourMonday, 29 June 2015
Antonio Pappano, artistic director and chief conductor of the Royal Opera House, is a polymath, for he is also a brilliant and persuasive narrator of the history of music. Here he embarked on a four part history of the operatic voice, starting at... Read more... |
The Flying Dutchman, Opera NorthSunday, 28 June 2015
We’ve been spoilt over the past few summers in Leeds; Opera North’s semi-staged Ring has been a triumph, and the whole cycle will be performed complete in June 2016. To fill the Town Hall in 2015 we’ve got concert performances of Wagner’s The Flying... Read more... |
Death in Venice, Garsington OperaMonday, 22 June 2015
Lagoon, miasma and scirocco may seem as far away as you can get from the rolling hills and pleasant airs of the Wormsley Estate in deepest home counties territory. Nor are the bleached bones of Britten’s bleak if ultimately transformative operatic... Read more... |
La Traviata: Love, Death and Divas, BBC TwoSunday, 21 June 2015
Verdi's La Traviata has become one of the best-loved and most-performed works in the operatic repertoire, but this is no thanks to sections of the English press. In this entertaining romp through the opera's history, presenters Tom Service and... Read more... |
Samson et Dalila, Grange Park OperaSunday, 21 June 2015
From “Printemps qui Commence“ (spring is beginning) to “Springtime for Hitler"... that really is quite some intellectual leap. Patrick Mason, an experienced and respected opera director, has uprooted the tale of Saint-Saëns's opera from biblical... Read more... |
The Corridor/The Cure, Linbury Studio TheatreFriday, 19 June 2015
Thresholds are breached and barred, penetrated and sealed up in Harrison Birtwistle’s beguiling pair of mythological scenas The Corridor and The Cure. Originally commissioned by the Aldeburgh Festival in 2009, The Corridor is paired here for the... Read more... |
Tristan und Isolde, Longborough FestivalWednesday, 17 June 2015
It’s well-known that Wagner shelved The Ring two thirds of the way through in favour of Tristan with the aim of producing something that could be put on quickly in a conventional theatre. Of course, it didn’t quite work out that way. Yet Tristan,... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Denmark: 150 years of NielsenTuesday, 16 June 2015
Music-lovers outside Denmark will have come to know Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) through his shatteringly vital symphonies as one of the world-class greats, a figure of light, darkness and every human shade in between. For Danes it is different: since... Read more... |
