Opera Reviews
From the House of the Dead, Welsh National Opera review - elderly staging, music comes up freshMonday, 09 October 2017
This week is Prison Week in the Christian Churches, and it would be nice, if fanciful, to think that WNO programmed their revival of Janáček’s From the House of the Dead with that in mind. Read more...
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Opera: Passion, Power and Politics, V&A review - seven cities, seven masterpiecesSaturday, 07 October 2017
There's something here for everyone, as a "roll up!" slogan for one of the greatest shows in town might put it. Read more... |
Dardanus, English Touring Opera review - mixed fortunes for warzone updatingSaturday, 07 October 2017
Baroque opera is always a challenge to stage, and Rameau’s Dardanus is no exception. In its original form, the story, of love in times of war, was infused with allegorical characters and mythological scenes. It flopped, and so Rameau and a new librettist thoroughly revised the work to focus more on the human drama. Read more... |
Khovanshchina/Eugene Onegin, Welsh National Opera review - Russian revivals strong and weakMonday, 02 October 2017
About Khovanshchina I once had serious doubts. Leaving aside its unfinished condition, it always struck me as what Wagnerians would call a bleeding chunk of history, unstructured, confused, over-researched and dramaturgically obscure. Read more... |
Cavalleria Rusticana/Trial by Jury, Opera North review - sombre triumph and pale frothThursday, 28 September 2017
Pairing Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana with Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury makes for a pleasingly schizoid evening in the latest of Opera North's The Little Greats series. Read more... |
Oedipe, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - Enescu's masterpiece glorious and completeMonday, 25 September 2017
It’s official: Romanian master George Enescu’s four-act Greek epic lives and breathes as a work of transcendent genius. It took last year’s Royal Opera production to lead us further along the path established by the magnificent EMI studio recording with José van Dam as protagonist. Read more... |
Senza Sangue/Bluebeard's Castle, Hackney Empire - uneven French-Hungarian mixWednesday, 20 September 2017
Has Hackney ever seen or heard such a spectacle – a full Hungarian orchestra taking up most of the Empire stalls to complete the semi-circle of a relatively empty stage? And did enough of London get to hear about it? Read more... |
La Damnation de Faust, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - infernal dynamiteMonday, 18 September 2017
For his monster concerts in 1840s Paris, Berlioz took pride in assembling and marshalling a "great beast of an orchestra". At the Barbican on Sunday night, the LSO filled the stage and fitted the bill. Read more... |
Pagliacci/L’enfant et les sortilèges, Opera North review - off and on with the motleyMonday, 18 September 2017
The first two one-acters in Opera North’s season called The Little Greats were unveiled on Saturday. There are six in all, scheduled on a mix-and-match basis so Leeds opera-goers can choose their own tapas menu: grab one show, choose from various pairs, or even try three on a Saturday (including a matinee) if you want to. Read more... |
Die Zauberflöte, Royal Opera review – enjoyable revival of much loved productionWednesday, 13 September 2017
This is the sixth revival of David McVicar’s production of Die Zauberflöte at Covent Garden since its debut in 2003. It was heard most recently in 2015, and is modestly described in the Royal Opera’s own publicity as a “classic”. Read more... |
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