Opera
Wozzeck, BBCSSO, Runnicles, City Halls, GlasgowFriday, 24 October 2014
It takes a brave man to programme a single performance of Berg’s Wozzeck on a damp Thursday evening in Glasgow. But Donald Runnicles is such a man. In his five years at the helm of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra he has proved adept at making... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Jonathan NottMonday, 20 October 2014
When I entered the light and spacious chief conductor’s room in Bamberg’s Konzerthalle, Jonathan Nott was poised with a coloured pencil over one of the toughest of 20th century scores, Varèse’s Arcana. He thought he might have bitten off rather a... Read more... |
Life on the Moon, English Touring OperaSaturday, 18 October 2014
You may be more familiar with the Italian title, Il mondo della luna, but chances are you won’t have seen this or any of Haydn’s other 16 operas. You haven’t missed much, at least until the last of his works as court composer to the Esterházy family... Read more... |
The Marriage of Figaro, English National OperaFriday, 17 October 2014
To take Figaro – the ultimate operatic assault on class distinctions and social hierarchies – and set it on a giant revolve is a gesture as wilful as it is elegant. Not only are divisions of above and below-stairs dissolved in this steadily circling... Read more... |
I Due Foscari, Royal OperaWednesday, 15 October 2014
First the good news. At 73, is Plácido Domingo anywhere near retiring? Er, no. When the question came up in an interview on Sunday (on video below), he answered : "The reason I don't retire is because I can still sing." And then with a glint in his... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Stockholm: A Nobel Prize for Musical ExcellenceSunday, 12 October 2014
Should you not have caught one of the 20th century’s handful of greatest Wagnerian singers live - I did, just once, in a Prom of uneven excerpts - chances are that you first heard Birgit Nilsson in Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene from Götterdämmerung... Read more... |
The Trial, Music Theatre Wales, Linbury Studio TheatreSunday, 12 October 2014
According to the programme essay, Philip Glass describes his latest opera as “serious, but also hilariously funny”. All I can say is, if The Trial is his idea of thigh-slapping hilarity then never, ever let him pick the movie on a night out. Whether... Read more... |
Alcina, The English Concert, Bicket, Barbican HallSaturday, 11 October 2014
What’s the collective noun for mezzo-sopranos? A "warble"? A "might"? A "trouser"? Whatever it is, it doesn’t get a lot of usage outside a choral context. Where in opera would you ever find multiple mezzos sharing a stage? Hardly anywhere. Except,... Read more... |
La Traviata, Glyndebourne TourSunday, 05 October 2014
Usually, anyone bringing tuberculosis and transgression to the regional centres of Woking, Norwich and Milton Keynes would meet redoubtable opposition. In the case of Glyndebourne’s new touring production of La traviata, that would be a shame,... Read more... |
The Coronation of Poppea, Opera NorthSunday, 05 October 2014
Tim Albery’s production of Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea takes plenty of liberties. There are moments when you scratch your head, quietly sigh, and think about your interval drink, or what you’ll eat when you get home.The cuts may... Read more... |
L'Incoronazione di Poppea, The Academy of Ancient Music, Howarth, Barbican HallSunday, 05 October 2014
Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea is an opera with a one-track mind. The music throbs and pulses with dancing desire, suspensions and elaborate embellishments defer gratification, while recitative is poised constantly on the edge of melodic... Read more... |
Moses in Egypt, Welsh National OperaSaturday, 04 October 2014
So easily parcelled up as a master of opera buffa, Rossini is a composer who constantly surprises by the emotional and intellectual range of his best work. William Tell, which opened WNO’s current season three weeks ago, is a major progenitor of... Read more... |
