Opera Reviews
The Pilgrim’s Progress, RNCM, Manchester review – a theatrical triumphThursday, 04 April 2019
The Royal Northern College of Music’s spring opera is a theatrical triumph and musically very, very good. It’s 27 years since they last presented what Vaughan Williams called his "morality" – that was a triumph too, and they made a CD of it which I still have. They may not be issuing a sound recording this time, but as an experience in the theatre, it is even more compelling. Read more...
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Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel, English National Opera review - powerful ensemble, wrong subjectSunday, 31 March 2019
If you can’t put a name to any of Jack the Ripper’s victims – and spin it however you please, victims they remain – then you shouldn’t buy the publicity about this new opera "bringing dignity back" to the murdered women in question. Isn’t it time to stop feeding the troll/killer, much as Jacinda Ardern did so swiftly and movingly under different circumstances last week, and let the five eviscerated corpses return to dust in peace? Read more... |
Berenice, Royal Opera/London Handel Festival review - luminous shenanigans in the LinburyThursday, 28 March 2019
It might be the nature of Handel's operatic beasts, but performances tend to fall into two camps: brilliant in the fusion of drama and virtuosity, singing and playing, or boring to various degrees. Read more... |
Elizabeth I/Macbeth, English Touring Opera review - elegance and eerinessTuesday, 26 March 2019
A crash, a scurry, a long, lilting serenade – the overture to Rossini’s Elizabeth I sounds oddly familiar. Not to worry. English Touring Opera has anticipated our confusion. Read more... |
La forza del destino, Royal Opera review - generous voices, dramatic voidsFriday, 22 March 2019
When "Maestro" Riccardo Muti left the Royal Opera's previous production of Verdi's fate-laden epic, disgusted by minor changes to fit the scenery on the Covent Garden stage, no-one was sorry when Antonio Pappano, the true master of the house then only two years into his glorious reign, took over. Read more... |
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Birmingham Opera Company review - searing music-theatre for allThursday, 14 March 2019
A rum cove sidles up pimping with a tatty business card offering the services of Sonyetka. Not for me, I say, pointing out that in any case she’ll be dead three hours later. "That's more than I know," he says and wanders off to hook other possible clients. Further on, rodent-headed creatures flit by. One seems to be in an altercation with a Rentokil officer. Odd, too, that there should be policemen parading the disco-lit, dilipidated Tower Ballroom on the edge of Edgbaston Reservoir. Read more... |
Idomeneo, English Touring Opera review – honest excellenceSaturday, 09 March 2019
Selfish, cunning, cynical, the older generation has screwed up the world with aggression abroad and dishonesty at home. Can their children make it good again? This family drama of transgression and reparation threads through Idomeneo, the opera that Mozart – who had his own troublesome issues with both biological fathers and father-figure patrons – premiered in Munich in 1781. Read more... |
Robin Hood, The Opera Story, CLF Café review - folk hero re-imagined as Tory villainWednesday, 06 March 2019
What’s the one thing everyone knows about Robin Hood? That he steals from the rich and gives to the poor. So it was quite a brave decision to re-cast Robin as a rapacious Tory shires MP, doing his best to stop the poor becoming rich. At least, I think that was what happened: in much of the story is opaque, even having read the synopsis carefully. Read more... |
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Guildhall School review - earthy, energetic BrittenMonday, 04 March 2019
It speaks vivid volumes for the superb health of our music colleges that the Guildhall School tackles every aspect of Britten's long and layered Shakespeare adaptation with total confidence. Read more... |
The Merry Widow, English National Opera review - glitter but no sparkleSaturday, 02 March 2019
It’s all there. High kicks and tight corsets; silk and sequins and shenanigans in a broom closet; hot pinks and still hotter can-can girls; waltzing, scheming, sparring, and a bit with a banquet table. There’s even a dancing beaver. So why don’t I feel more elated? Read more... |
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