Opera Reviews
Anthropocene, Hackney Empire review - vivid soundscapes but not quite enough thrillsFriday, 08 February 2019
The flayed corpse of a dead seal hangs red and grotesque at the back of the stage. It’s a placeholder; we know that by the end of Anthropocene – Scottish composer Stuart McRae’s latest collaboration with librettist Louise Welsh – something more familiar, and far more horrifying, will take its place. Read more... |
Katya Kabanova, Royal Opera review - inner torment incarnateTuesday, 05 February 2019
Backstories, we're told, are a crucial part of stage visionary Richard Jones's rehearsal process. Read more... |
Katya Kabanova, Opera North review – a grim taleMonday, 04 February 2019
A sad tale’s best for winter, and Opera North have returned to Janáček’s lyrical taken on a classic Russian drama of domestic abuse, guilt and suicide for this ingredient of their current season. Read more... |
Die Walküre, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - love shines outMonday, 28 January 2019
Harpers on the undeniably offensive aspect of Wagner the man might question attending a concert performance of his second Ring opera on World Holocaust Day. Fortunately there's nothing anti-semitic to be found anywhere in Die Walküre. Read more... |
The Queen of Spades, Royal Opera review - uneven cast prey to overthought conceptMonday, 14 January 2019
Prince Yeletsky, one of the shortest roles for a principal baritone in opera but with the loveliest of arias, looms large in Stefan Herheim's concept of The Queen of Spades. Read more... |
Hänsel und Gretel, Royal Opera review - not quite hungry enoughFriday, 14 December 2018
Once upon a time there was the terrible mouth of Richard Jones's Welsh National Opera/Met Hänsel und Gretel, finding an idiosyncratic equivalent to the original Engelbert Humperdinck's dark Wagnerian heart. Then came something very nasty in the witch's deep freeze of the last Royal Opera staging, something of a dog's dinner from Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser. Read more... |
Gianni Schicchi/Suor Angelica, RNCM, Manchester review – music does the magicWednesday, 12 December 2018
The Royal Northern College of Music’s December opera production was the useful double bill of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi from Puccini’s Trittico. Read more... |
Candide, LSO, Alsop, Barbican review - nearly the best of all possible...Monday, 10 December 2018
When the biggest laugh in Bernstein’s Candide goes to a narrator’s mention of how nationalism was sweeping through Europe, you may have a problem. Still, the Bernstein Centenary has been among the best of all possible anniversary celebrations this year and at the LSO Candide - the great man’s bonkers operetta-ish take on Voltaire, a flawed masterpiece with a succession of glorious tunes and snappy lyrics - could have been its apex. At times, it was. Read more... |
L'heure espagnole, Mid Wales Opera review - Ravel goes like clockworkSaturday, 01 December 2018
Mid Wales Opera makes small-scale touring look fun – even when you suspect that, behind the scenes, it really isn’t. Barely 24 hours before this performance of their current production of Ravel’s L’heure espagnole, and 11 dates into their current 16 date tour, their Torquemada, Peter van Hulle, was invalided out. Read more... |
War Requiem, English National Opera review - a striking spectacle, but oddly unmovingSaturday, 17 November 2018
We’re not good at lack these days. Just look at the concert hall, where increasingly you turn up to find not just an orchestra and soloists but a giant screen. Videos, projections, live speakers, "virtual choirs"; if there’s so much as a chink of an opening in the music, you can bet that someone will try and fill it. It seems to come from a place of generosity, a desire to reach out, to supplement, to amplify, to explain, just in case we didn’t feel or see or understand before. Read more... |
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