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

Prom 1, Verdi's Requiem, BBCSO, Oramo review - introspective sorrow and consolation between the blazes

Read more...

theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2022 - body and soul in perfect balance

Read more...

The Turn of the Screw, Garsington Opera review - terrors and tragedy

Read more...

theartsdesk at the East Neuk Festival 2022 - on Cloud Nine for five days of the greatest music-making

Read more...

Così fan tutte, Royal Opera review - vibrant youth and vocal beauty

Read more...

theartsdesk in Zurich - forging a brilliant new Ring

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: bass-baritone Christopher Purves on communicating everything from Handel to George Benjamin

Read more...

George Fu, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - high intellect and visceral shocks

Read more...

Violet, Music Theatre Wales/Britten-Pears Arts review - well sung and played, but to what end?

Read more...

Ulysses, Abbey Theatre / The Tin Soldier, Gate Theatre, Dublin review - peerless Joyce marathon, Andersen squashed

Read more...

theartsdesk at the Dublin International Chamber Music Festival - extraordinary women to the fore

Read more...

Maria Stuarda, Irish National Opera review – two queens sing for the crown, with spectacular results

Read more...

Orfeo ed Euridice, Blackwater Valley Opera Festival review - heavenly possibilities, devils at work in the details

Read more...

Davidsen, Oslo Philharmonic, Mäkelä, Barbican review - full workout for the nervous system

Read more...

LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - four centuries of Italian music on parade

Read more...

Samson et Dalila, Royal Opera review - from austerity to excess, with visual rigour and aural beauty

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...