Opera Features
Making new waves: Royce Vavrek on forging a libretto from Lars von TrierTuesday, 20 August 2019
It was during the 1997 Golden Globe Awards telecast that I first caught a glimpse of the film that would change my life completely. Midway through the ceremony was featured a short clip of a paralysed man telling a young woman, his wife, to go and find another man to make love to. Read more... |
theartsdesk in Dalarna: Rhinegold in a Swedish barn by a lakeSaturday, 27 July 2019
Anna Larsson's fellow Swedes can count themselves lucky that the worldwide first choice to sing Wagner's Erda and the midnight song in Mahler's Third Symphony has made so much of her Dalarna inheritance. Read more... |
'A product not only of his era but also of his travels': Ian Page on Mozart's cosmopolitan educationMonday, 08 July 2019
When Mozart was an established composer living in Vienna during the final years of his short life, a young student seemingly came to him to seek his advice. The would-be young composer said that he was planning to write a symphony, and asked Mozart what advice he could give to him. Mozart replied that a symphony was a complex undertaking, and suggested that the youngster should first write a few keyboard sonatas and string quartets before undertaking an orchestral work. |
Franco Zeffirelli: 'I had this feeling that I was special'Saturday, 15 June 2019
"I am amazed to be still alive. Two hours of medieval torment.” Franco Zeffirelli - who has died at the age of 96 - had spent the day having a lumbar injection to treat a sciatic nerve. You could hear the bafflement in his heavily accented English. Read more... |
First Person: Conductor Maxime Pascal on Stockhausen at the Southbank CentreTuesday, 21 May 2019
Stockhausen stands alongside Monteverdi and Beethoven as a composer who exploded the understanding of his art. Stockhausen deeply changed the relationship between space, time and music; there’s a human, intimate dimension to his composition, and he predicted the future. Read more... |
In the spirit of the composer as innovator: Samir Savant on the London Handel FestivalWednesday, 27 March 2019
This is my third year as festival director of the London Handel Festival, an annual celebration of the life and work of composer George Frideric Handel, which takes place every spring in venues across the capital. Read more... |
'Bringing things to life is what opera is all about': Robert Howarth on a 'Magic Flute' with a differenceFriday, 18 January 2019
I’m here in Leeds at the end of five weeks of quite intense rehearsals for Opera North's new production of Mozart's The Magic Flute. Read more... |
Best of 2018: OperaWednesday, 26 December 2018
Outnumbered by four to one: out of the classical/opera team, Alexandra Coghlan, Jessica Duchen, David Benedict and... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Brno: Czech 100th feted through Janáček and SmetanaSaturday, 08 December 2018
Five of Leoš Janáček's 10 operas are staples of the worldwide repertoire. Two I'd never seen on stage, so the slice I chose of the19-day festival devoted to all of them for the second time in the history of Brno, the cultured Moravian capital where he spent most of his life, tended to the rare and local. Read more... |
'I’ve told everyone that it’s a comedy – but will anyone laugh?' Jonathan Dove on his new Marx operaWednesday, 05 December 2018
Marx is having a terrible day. He is supposed to be finishing volume two of Capital but he’s distracted by his lust for the maid, workmen are taking away the furniture, his daughter thinks she’s caught a spy.... and what will his wife say when she discovers he’s taken her silver to the pawnbroker? Where is Engels when Marx needs him most? Read more... |
Pages
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 10,000 pieces, we're asking for £3.95 per month or £30 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take an annual subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
latest in today
Pain and Glory review - masterful meditation on age and art
The Almodovar who made his name as an all-out provocateur in the 80s considers that wild art’s becalmed far side...
The Doctor, Almeida Theatre review - Robert Icke's long...
After six years, associate director Robert Icke bids farewell to the...
CD: Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity - To Whom Buys a Record
To Whom Buys a Record roams through 12 crisply recorded pieces confirming that...
Heartbreak Holiday, BBC One review - can it match up to Love...
The BBC’s version of Love Island has familiar ingredients: ten 20-somethings, many with pale manicures and hair extensions, on an island...
Train Your Baby Like A Dog, Channel 4 review - an animal beh...
Animal behaviourist Jo-Rosie Haffenden, who lives in Spain, has some very good dogs (and a charming toddler, who knows how to sit). Can she...
Prom 43: Haefliger, BBCSO & Chorus, Oramo review – the f...
Time was, not long ago, when the very word “premiere” was enough to ensure a sizeable smattering of red plush holes in the Royal Albert Hall...
The Day Mountbatten Died, BBC Two review - the IRA's au...
It was a lovely summer’s day in southern England, much as it was in County Sligo. I was with my parents, driving to visit a very elderly relative...
Making new waves: Royce Vavrek on forging a libretto from La...
It was during the 1997 Golden Globe Awards telecast that I first caught a glimpse of the...
DVD/Blu-ray: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Fred Schepisi’s The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) was the...