Opera Reviews
Porgy and Bess, English National Opera review - strength in depth on Catfish RowFriday, 12 October 2018
After exhausting years of financial and artistic crisis-management at the Coliseum, English National Opera urgently needed an ironclad, feelgood success. This season’s opener, a somewhat idiosyncratic take on Strauss’s Salome, was unlikely to fit that bill. Read more... |
Solomon, Royal Opera review - an awkward compromise of a performanceFriday, 12 October 2018
There was no synopsis in the programme for the Royal Opera’s concert performance of Handel’s Solomon. Maybe that was an oversight, but perhaps it’s simply because there really is no plot to summarise. Read more... |
Opolais, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Nelsons, RFH review - splendid and awful stretchesWednesday, 10 October 2018
Latvia is fighting fit. The recent elections did not see the expected victory for the pro-Kremlin Harmony party; support for the European Union and NATO will be well represented. Read more... |
Radamisto, English Touring Opera review - propulsive, lively HandelTuesday, 09 October 2018
Baroque repertoire doesn’t seem to register on most British opera company’s schedules these days, so it is good to see ETO devoting their autumn season to Handel, Purcell and Bach, with some additions from Carissimi and Gesualdo for good measure. Their first production, Handel’s Radamisto, is a good choice for touring, a compact six-hander with strong characters and great music. Read more... |
BBC Philharmonic, Wellber, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - new conductor’s debutMonday, 08 October 2018
Two days after announcing his appointment as their next chief conductor (he takes the reins officially next summer, in time for the Proms), by remarkable good fortune the Manchester-based BBC Philharmonic was able to present Omer Meir Wellber as the conductor of their second Bridgewater Hall series concert. Read more... |
Dido and Aeneas, Academy of Ancient Music, Barbican review – prosthetic passionsWednesday, 03 October 2018
“War Horse has a lot to answer for,” grumbled, or joked, my neighbour as the white-draped and white-faced puppet of the Queen of Carthage lay crumpled on the floor at the close of Thomas Guthrie’s semi-staged production of Dido and Aeneas. Well, not just War Horse. Read more... |
Götterdämmerung, Royal Opera review - a fiery finale to this ambiguous cycleTuesday, 02 October 2018
And so it ends. Flames give way to water, and as the Rhinemaidens resume their naked dance we come full circle – quite literally in Keith Warner’s Wagner Ring – back where we began, on the banks of the Rhine. Once again we find ourselves on the brink – but of what? Read more... |
Siegfried, Royal Opera review - a truly fearless heroSunday, 30 September 2018
Siegfried is usually the problem with Siegfried. Even Stuart Skelton, top Tristan and currently singing an acclaimed Siegmund in this last revival of Keith Warner's rattlebag Ring, won't touch the longest, toughest heroic-tenor role in Wagner, the protagonist of his third opera in the tetralogy. Read more... |
Salome, English National Opera review - a not so terrible stillnessSaturday, 29 September 2018
Sibling incest among the symbolic clutter of the Royal Opera Ring on Wednesday, last night necrophilia and a bit more incest – mother and daughter this time, courtesy of the director's imagination – in a stone-cold ENO Salome. Read more... |
Die Walküre, Royal Opera review – putting family before sexThursday, 27 September 2018
Perched alone and fearful in her hut as the curtain rises on Die Walküre, Sieglinde clutches and then throws aside a grimy teddy-bear. Story time is over. The nymphs and gold and bickering gods all belong in the past, to the ‘preliminary evening’ of Das Rheingold, or so Sieglinde might think. The real drama of Wagner's Ring begins here. 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
CD: Shy FX - Raggamuffin SoundTape
Everything about this mixtape oozes confidence. It crams twelve tracks plus interludes - all produced by Andre “Shy FX” Williams -...
Shetland, Series 5 Finale, BBC One review - Sicario-on-Sea?
Thing this, a lot of this unpleasantness could have been avoided if ...
Schiff, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, RFH review –...
Standing next to the warm brown beast of a piano built by...
Only Human: Martin Parr, National Portrait Gallery review -...
The Magnum photographer Martin Parr has spent decades...
DVD/Blu-ray: Bergman - A Year in a Life
1957 was a busy year for a very busy director: Ingmar Bergman made two of his most famous...
Richard II, Sam Wanamaker Theatre review - electrifying mixe...
Richard II has become the drama of our times, as it walks us through the impotent convulsions of a weak and vain leader brought down by in-...
The Thread, Russell Maliphant & Vangelis, Sadler’s Wells...
In The Thread Russell Maliphant attempts what, at first sight, appears a foolhardy project – the juxtaposition of...
CD: Lucy Rose - No Words Left
Every so often, an album reminds you that, done properly, the art form is more than just a collection of songs. Barely...
David Hepworth: A Fabulous Creation review - how vinyl sooth...
Record Store Day is now a fixture on the calendar, a key element in “the vinyl revival”, and this year – 13 April – it’s possible to buy a special...
Reissue CDs Weekly: Where The Girls Are Volume Ten
The US music trade weekly Cashbox chose a picture of the then-hot Diana Ross & the Supremes and Temptations joint enterprise for the...