sun 29/06/2025

stephen walsh

Bio
Stephen is a former Observer music critic and a regular contributor to The Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Independent and the BBC. He is the author of a major biography of Stravinsky and other books on Stravinsky, Bartók and Schumann. He holds a chair in music at Cardiff University.

Articles By Stephen Walsh

Don Giovanni, Welsh National Opera review - fine young cast let down by unhelpful conducting

Read more...

Madam Butterfly, Welsh National Opera review - decent performance, disagreeable context

Read more...

The Barber of Seville, Welsh National Opera review - back to work in an old banger

Read more...

The Cunning Little Vixen, Longborough Festival Opera review - life, death and the menopause in the forest

Read more...

theartsdesk at the Three Choirs Festival - Purcell, Gabriel Jackson and Duruflé

Read more...

Die Walküre, Longborough Festival Opera review - heroic defiance of farcical constraints

Read more...

Pagliacci, Opera Ensemble, Longborough review - stripped down but live

Read more...

Brecon Baroque, Podger, Brecon Cathedral online review - Bach recoloured

Read more...

Denis and Katya, Music Theatre Wales / Uproar, Rafferty review - disturbing the untroubled monotony of South Wales music

Read more...

Les vêpres siciliennes, Welsh National Opera review - spectacular, silly, but some great music

Read more...

Podger, Brecon Baroque, Hollingworth, Brecon Cathedral review - Bohemian footnotes yield the extraordinary

Read more...

The Cunning Little Vixen, Welsh National Opera review - family night in the forest

Read more...

Rigoletto, Welsh National Opera review - same old update, fine performance

Read more...

Carmen, Welsh National Opera review - intermittent brilliance in a gloomy, unclear environment

Read more...

theartsdesk at the Three Choirs Festival - the beautiful and the damned

Read more...

Don Giovanni, Longborough Festival Opera review - Mozart in the urinal

Read more...

Pages

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Music Reissues Weekly: Rupert’s People - Dream In My Mind

Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” was an instant phenomenon. Recorded in April 1967 and issued as a single on 12 May after pre-release play...

Fidelio, Garsington Opera review - a battle of sunshine and...

Sometimes, as the first act of Beethoven’s Fidelio closes, the chorus of prisoners discreetly fade away backstage as their brief taste of...

Intimate Apparel, Donmar Warehouse review - stirring story o...

The corset is an unlikely star of the latest Lynn Nottage play to arrive at the...

theartsdesk Q&A: director Andreas Dresen on his anti-Naz...

Andreas Dresen directs socially engaged realist films that invariably relay personal and political messages; the result can be tough but is...

Hercules, Theatre Royal Drury Lane review - new Disney stage...

Many years ago, reviewing pantomime for the first time, I recall looking around in the stalls. My brain was saying, “This is...

Alfred Brendel 1931-2025 - a personal tribute

Alfred Brendel’s death earlier this month came as a shock, but it wasn’t unexpected. His health had gradually deteriorated over the last year or...

Chicken Town review - sluggish rural comedy with few laughs...

Fans of the character comedian Graham Fellows will possibly turn up for this British film starring the man who created the punk parody...

Album: Lorde - Virgin

Lorde’s trajectory is continually fascinating. From the minimalist, sparse electropop of Pure Heroine to the similar but more grandiose...