fri 29/08/2025

David Nice

David Nice's picture
Bio
The classical music and opera editor of theartsdesk, David writes, lectures and broadcasts on music. A former music critic for The Guardian and The Sunday Correspondent, he has made regular appearances on BBC Radio 3, not least in the long-running series Building a Library. He has written short studies on Elgar, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and the history of opera, and is currently working on the second volume of his Prokofiev biography for Yale University Press. He runs two Zoom lecture series, Opera in Depth on Mondays and a symphonies course on Thursdays.

Articles By David Nice

Natalie Dessay, Philippe Cassard, Milton Court review - flashes of magic

Read more...

Rodelinda, The English Concert, Bicket, Saffron Hall review - perfect team helps us stay the long Handel course

Read more...

Odyssey: A Heroic Pantomime, Charles Court Opera, Jermyn Street Theatre review - topsy-turvy Homer

Read more...

The Dante Project, Royal Ballet review - brave but flawed take on the Divine Comedy returns

Read more...

Louise Alder & Friends, Wigmore Hall review - magic carpet rides with soprano, strings and woodwind

Read more...

Gazzaniga's Don Giovanni, Royal College of Music review - a modest one-acter overloaded

Read more...

Maestro review - the infinite variety of Leonard Bernstein

Read more...

Selaocoe, Schimpelsberger, LSO, Ward, Barbican review - force of nature crowns dance jamboree

Read more...

Jephtha, Royal Opera review - uncomfortable sacrifice oratorio not seismic enough

Read more...

theartsdesk at Wexford Festival Opera - four operas and a recital in one crazy day

Read more...

L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Monteverdi Choir, EBS, Sousa, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - Handel at his most magical

Read more...

Lugansky, RPO, Petrenko, RFH review - so sure in all their ways

Read more...

Paris Chapters, Barbier Serrano, Finegan, Ling, Bloomsbury Festival review - beguiling journey around Irishmen abroad

Read more...

Un ballo in maschera, Chelsea Opera Group, Cadogan Hall review - Italianate vitality, if not much finesse

Read more...

Rice, Ridout, Drake / A Human Document, Oxford International Song Festival review - a cornucopia of song, speech and vision

Read more...

Iolanthe, English National Opera review - still gorgeous but ever so slightly less funny than before

Read more...

Pages

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
theartsdesk Q&A: Suranne Jones on 'Hostage', p...

If she decided to run for election, Suranne Jones would probably stand a good chance of winning. The Chadderton-born actress and...

Interview, Riverside Studios review - old media vs new in sp...

The cult film that director Theo van Gogh left behind when he was killed in 2004, Interview, has already been remade twice;...

theartsdesk Radio Show 37 - Pete Lawrence of the Big Chill d...

This edition of Peter Culshaw’s peripatetic...

Little Trouble Girls review - masterful debut breathes new l...

Taking its title from a Sonic Youth track whose lyrics describe someone who seems good on the outside but is bad inside, this debut...

Young Mothers review - the Dardennes explore teenage motherh...

“Not even an animal would do what she did.” Jessica (Babette Verbeek) is speaking about her biological mother, who abandoned her when she was a...

Album: CMAT - EURO-COUNTRY

Queen of the earworm Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson has had quite the summer, capturing imaginations and sparking indignation. The brazen hussy has the...

BBC Proms: The Marriage of Figaro, Glyndebourne Festival rev...

One door closes, and another one opens. A lot. It’s extraordinary what value those two simple additions to the Royal Albert Hall stage lent to...

Fat Ham, RSC, Stratford review - it's Hamlet Jim, but n...

$8.2B. That’s what can happen when you re-imagine ...

King & Conqueror, BBC One review - not many kicks in 106...

In this strangely dreary recreation of 11th century history, it’s not just grim oop north, it’s grim everywhere. King & Conqueror...