The teenage Liszt's song for Europe | reviews, news & interviews
The teenage Liszt's song for Europe
The teenage Liszt's song for Europe
A worthy anniversary celebration of the child prodigy for this year's Europe Day concert
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Young Liszt in 1824, the year he was commissioned to write his only opera, by Leprince
For last year's Europe Day concert, presidency-holder Spain fielded a Paco Peña showstopper in what's for the past three years been the venue of choice, St John's, Smith Square. This 9 May, the Hungarians' six-month stint yielded not a wow-factor spectacular - for me, that would have been a knees-up with violinist Gaby Lakatos - but instead a worthy and far from dull celebration of the Liszt bicentenary with 13-year-old Ferenc/Franz's one-act opera, Don Sanche.
For last year's Europe Day concert, presidency-holder Spain fielded a Paco Peña showstopper in what's for the past three years been the venue of choice, St John's, Smith Square. This 9 May, the Hungarians' six-month stint yielded not a wow-factor spectacular - for me, that would have been a knees-up with violinist Gaby Lakatos - but instead a worthy and far from dull celebration of the Liszt bicentenary with 13-year-old Ferenc/Franz's one-act opera, Don Sanche.
more Opera
Rigoletto, Opera Holland Park review - Verdi's Duke gets the Oxbridge treatment
A handsome season opener doesn't quite stab where it counts
Requiem, Opera North review - partnership and diversity
Choral-orchestral performance meets contemporary dance in cross-cultural fusion
Götterdämmerung, Longborough Festival review - from the hieratic to the mundane and back
Wagner's gallon in a pint pot with mixed results
L'elisir d'amore, Glyndebourne review - fun and unfussy, with quality at its core
No potions needed to love this uplifting and entertaining operatic comedy
First Person: composer Russell Hepplewhite on setting John Burningham's 'Borka' to music
The goose with no feathers embarks on an operatic tour
Wozzeck, Royal Opera review - orchestral and visual beauty salve human misery at its most extreme
Strong performances and stunning stage pictures for Berg's upsetting tragedy
Don Giovanni, Glyndebourne review - stunning, exuberant production reveals human nature in all its complexity
Julia Hansen’s multi-tiered set looks like something out of a Wes Anderson movie
The Pearl Fishers, Opera North review - focus on the mystery
‘Concert staging’ of Bizet’s essay in exoticism has its advantages
Blue, English National Opera review - the company’s boldest vindication yet?
Jeanine Tesori’s score and Tazewell Thompson’s libretto hit hard where it matters
Arminio, Royal Opera review - Handel does Homeland, and it works
Taut staging and strong singing give this revival of a rarity its keen topical edge
Innocence, Royal Opera review - timely, layered drama with almost incidental music
Director Simon Stone does it again, but questions remain about Kaija Saariaho’s score
Theodora, Arcangelo, Cohen, Barbican review - gloriously dark and sober
A chilly story gains plenty of human warmth in this vivid account
Add comment