Opera
The Wild Man of the West Indies, ETO, Hackney EmpireFriday, 13 March 2015
“Do you think they’ve got enough plot to get us through to the end?” I overheard a lady anxiously asking her husband during the interval. It was a fair question. Donizetti’s The Wild Man of the West Indies was written within a year of L’elisir d’... Read more... |
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Royal OperaWednesday, 11 March 2015
"No heckling. No smoking. No making love," read the nifty video projections announcing the rise of the new Mahagonny at the Royal Opera House. Why so coy? Could they not give us a bang for our buck, or even a slow comfortable screw?But that would be... Read more... |
Opinion: Where's the crisis at ENO?Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Having been bowled over by the total work of art English National Opera made of Wagner’s The Mastersingers of Nuremberg on its first night, I bought tickets immediately afterwards for the final performance. So I’m off tonight to catch the farewell... Read more... |
Alice in Wonderland, BBCSO, Brönnimann, BarbicanMonday, 09 March 2015
The Southbank Centre’s Women of the World Festival may have been the largest cultural event marking International Women’s Day 2015, but it wasn’t the most ambitious. Over at the Barbican two women were responsible for a multimedia opera staging... Read more... |
Ruddigore, Charles Court Opera, King's Head TheatreTuesday, 03 March 2015
How can a feisty village dame duetting “lackaday”s with the mounted head of a long-lost, nay, long-dead love be so deuced affecting? Ascribe it partly to the carefully-applied sentiment of Gilbert and Sullivan, slipping in a very singular 11-o’clock... Read more... |
Le Roi de Lahore, Chelsea Opera Group, QEHMonday, 02 March 2015
Now that opera houses mostly lack either the will or the funds to stage the more fantastical/exotic pageants among 19th century operas – the Royal Opera production of Meyerbeer’s mostly third-rate Robert le Diable was an unhappy exception – it’s... Read more... |
Die Zauberflöte, Royal OperaSunday, 01 March 2015
Mozart’s The Magic Flute is one of those operas, like Verdi’s Il trovatore and all the mature Wagner masterpieces, which need a line-up of equally fine singers but rarely get it in the compromised world of the opera house. With Christiane Karg and... Read more... |
The Indian Queen, English National OperaFriday, 27 February 2015
When Purcell died at just 36, he left The Indian Queen unfinished, which only adds to the usual problems of staging his "semi-operas" – plays with musical interludes which don’t really accord with modern operatic tastes, despite the ravishing beauty... Read more... |
Hansel and Gretel, Welsh National OperaSunday, 22 February 2015
After 16 years one might expect a revival of a repertory opera like Hansel and Gretel to come up with a dusty look and frayed edges. But Benjamin Davis has done a brilliant job pumping the life back into Richard Jones’s memorable but intricate 1998... Read more... |
Farinelli and the King, Sam Wanamaker PlayhouseSaturday, 21 February 2015
Farinelli and The King is pretty much a perfect piece of theatre. More importantly, though, it’s perfectly timed. In a month when English National Opera’s troubles have made the front page, when op-eds are all about why Simon Rattle’s dreams of a... Read more... |
La Vida Breve/Gianni Schicchi, Opera NorthThursday, 19 February 2015
The good news first: director Christopher Alden’s new production of Gianni Schicchi is quite brilliant, and one of the funniest, cleverest things you’ll see in an opera house. Puccini’s taut one-acter is difficult to mess up, but it takes some skill... Read more... |
'I'm the photographer. Any nudity? Any fighting?'Wednesday, 18 February 2015
We are sitting in the lobby of the National Theatre in the early afternoon waiting for the photocall for Dara to begin. Six or seven photographers, one woman, all dressed in jeans and dark jackets with large camera bags, some on wheels. There is not... Read more... |
