Opera Reviews
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Rattle, Royal Albert HallMonday, 02 August 2010
In 1860 Wagner sent a full score of his recently published Tristan und Isolde to Berlioz, inscribing it: “To the great and dear composer of Roméo et Juliette, from the grateful composer of Tristan und Isolde.” The bonds between these two works go far beyond emotion, as last night’s inspired piece of programming from Simon Rattle and the Orchestra of the Age of... Read more...
|
Francesca da Rimini, Opera Holland ParkSaturday, 31 July 2010
They're having a laugh at Holland Park, surely: offering 700 pay-what-you-like tickets to hook newcomers on the wonderful world of opera, and then serving up a Pythonesque staging of an immoveable Italian dinosaur. Read more... |
Hänsel und Gretel, GlyndebourneMonday, 26 July 2010
Glyndebourne’s Hänsel und Gretel comes in a large cardboard box, with plain brown wrapper, duct-tape and a barcode. There’s a public health warning, too: sugar and spice and all things nice come at a price. The evil witch Rosina Sweet-Tooth is nothing more, nothing less than rabid consumerism masquerading as a smart lady in a pink two-piece suit. Yes, Laurent Pelly’s 2008 staging was/ is the first environmentally aware Humperdinck. It had to come. For revival read recycle. Read more... |
Simon Boccanegra, Royal Albert HallSunday, 18 July 2010
First to crane his head anxiously in Plácido Domingo's direction was the leader of the Royal Opera House orchestra, Peter Manning. Then came an agitated look from conductor Antonio Pappano. Soprano Marina Poplavskaya clutched Domingo's chest as if to feel for a heart beat. "Is he ok?" we all mouthed. We had just seen Domingo slam his wizened Simon Boccanegra to the ground, dead. The music had rumbled to a close. The Prommers' applause had erupted. |
Die Meistersinger at the Proms, BBC FourSunday, 18 July 2010
Two birthday parties kept me away from the Albert Hall yesterday (though I'll confess that in the end I treacherously skipped the second and stayed glued to the TV's delayed relay). That, and a slight fear that the concert performance of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg from the BBC Proms couldn't match up to the original Welsh National Opera production of the decade. Read more... |
The Duchess of Malfi, ENO, PunchdrunkWednesday, 14 July 2010
It's tough being a critic. Read more... |
La Traviata, Royal OperaThursday, 08 July 2010
Of course she isn't now the watchful, learning 29-year-old who premiered Covent Garden’s opulent, sensually loaded production in 1995, but Gheorghiu’s varicoloured voice - a rainbow of tears, sobs, scoops, warbling runs and top notes that seem to rack her body with pain - has if anything added more colours since then (including a less fetching... Read more... |
I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw The Sky, Theatre Royal Stratford EastThursday, 08 July 2010
John Adams thinks his and poet June Jordan's fantasia on love in a time of earthquake flopped at its 1995 Berkeley premiere for two main reasons. Read more... |
Salome, Royal OperaWednesday, 07 July 2010
The first time I saw David McVicar's production of Strauss's hypersensuous shocker, I gaped in horrified wonder at the Pasolini Salò-style mise en scène but didn't find the action within it fully realised. When it came out on DVD, the close-ups won greater respect but there was still the problem of Nadja Michael's singing, hardly a note in true. Now it returns with Angela Denoke, an even more compelling actress with a far healthier soprano voice. Read more... |
Don Giovanni live from Aix, Ciné LumièreTuesday, 06 July 2010
With several replicas of Mozart's libertine stalking the country this summer, there had to be a good reason for seeking him out in the cinema. I had two. One was a curiosity to see how the TV channel Arte and the French Institute in South Kensington would handle a medium so successfully exploited around the world by New York's Metropolitan Opera. Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
Rebus, BBC One review - revival of Ian Rankin's Scottis...
The previous incarnation of Ian Rankin’s Scottish detective on ITV starred, in their contrasting styles, John Hannah and Ken Stott. For this ...
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Sousa, St Martin-in...
Better (much better, indeed) late than never. The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique should have given their cycle of Beethoven symphonies at...
Music Reissues Weekly: Andwella - To Dream
Original pressings of Love And Poetry sell for up to £2,800. Copies of the August 1969 debut album by Andwellas Dream can sometimes also...
Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Stoller Hall, Ma...
There’s a sense of cheerful abandon about Manchester Camerata’s ...
Album: Barry Adamson - Cut to Black
Always looking dapper and always sounding cool, Barry Adamson is a man who nevertheless seems to be perpetually of another time. Giving off the...
Carmen, Glyndebourne review - total musical fusion
It’s what you dream of in opera but don’t often get: singers feeling free and liberated to give their best after weeks of preparation with a...
The Great Escape Festival 2024, Brighton review - a dip into...
Before reviewing The Great Escape, we must first deal with the elephant in the room. Or, in this case, the room that’s crushing the elephant, like...
Fawlty Towers: The Play, Apollo Theatre review - lightning s...
There are many definitions of bravery, and taking on the challenge of embodying John Cleese as Basil Fawlty in Cleese’s own stage...
Laufey, Royal Albert Hall review - fans in heaven
In many ways, Laufey’s emotionally charged, sold-out...
Bermondsey Tales: Fall of the Roman Empire review - dirty de...
What with the likes of Sexy Beast, Layer Cake, The Hatton Garden Job and the oeuvre of Guy Ritchie, the...