London Coliseum
theartsdesk Q&A: Nina Ananiashvili, founder of the State Ballet of GeorgiaSaturday, 03 August 2024![]() Great ballet dancers who boldly turn away from a stellar international career to grow a national ballet company in their homelands are few, but legendary. Alicia Alonso did it in Cuba, Ninette de Valois did it in Britain. And, dancing across the... Read more... |
Spirited Away, London Coliseum review - spectacular re-imagining of beloved filmThursday, 09 May 2024![]() Legions of Ghibli fanatics may love the heartwarming My Neighbour Totoro and the heartbreaking Grave of the Fireflies, but they revere Spirited Away, their, our, The Godfather and The Wizard of Oz rolled into one. Totoro has been magnificently... Read more... |
Jenůfa, English National Opera review - searing new cast in precise revivalThursday, 14 March 2024![]() Face scarred, baby murdered – both crimes committed by those closest to her – village girl Jenůfa rises again with extraordinary strength of will. Of all affirmative endings in opera, Janáček’s has to be the most moving, and all the more so in this... Read more... |
The Handmaid's Tale, English National Opera review - last chance saloon for sub-Atwood baggy monsterFriday, 02 February 2024![]() Never underestimate the enduring power of a great story over an unwieldy operatic setting. Few of us who saw the first ENO production of The Handmaid’s Tale back in 2003 thought the work stood much chance of revival. Yet Margaret Atwood’s dystopian... Read more... |
Giselle, English National Ballet, Coliseum review - if you go down to the woods today, beware of the WilisTuesday, 16 January 2024![]() We’re used to the idea of 19th century ballets being updated, but the Giselle currently presented by English National Ballet takes it the other way.This production, itself more than 50 years old, offers the closest possible experience of a Romantic... Read more... |
The Mongol Khan, London Coliseum review - unique operatic spectacle utterly overwhelms flaws in pacing and storyWednesday, 22 November 2023![]() “But that’s what they’re paying for!” replied my son as we, a little shellshocked by the previous three hours, skirted Trafalgar Square on the way home. I had reservations about some key components of the alchemy that produces great theatre, but... Read more... |
Iolanthe, English National Opera review - still gorgeous but ever so slightly less funny than beforeWednesday, 11 October 2023![]() Parliament may be topsy-turvy, with a motley bunch of Lords the only hope in vetoing outrageous bills, but up the road at the London Coliseum a more disciplined company is steering a luxury liner with perfect craft. Cal McCrystal’s best G&S so... Read more... |
Peter Grimes, English National Opera review - not quite the pity or the truthFriday, 22 September 2023![]() Britten’s biggest cornucopia of invention seems unsinkable, and no-one seeing his breakthrough 1945 opera for the first time in this revival will fail to register its forceful genius. David Alden’s expressionist nightmare of a production, though,... Read more... |
We Will Rock You, London Coliseum review - the Queen musical returns, as ludicrous, dense and dreadful as beforeTuesday, 13 June 2023![]() Twenty-one years ago, critics were alarmed by Ben Elton’s deranged musical We Will Rock You. But, despite the "staggeringly awful" reviews, the show somehow went on to have 12 long (and painful) years of West End success. So, here we are again. The... Read more... |
The Dead City, English National Opera review - strong dream world, weak love storyMonday, 27 March 2023![]() Is Korngold a second-rank composer with some first-rate ideas? Most performances of the 23-year-old Viennese prodigy's Die tote Stadt make it seem so. Nearly smothered in glitter and craft, the story can compel – an oblique, promising stance on... Read more... |
The Rhinegold, English National Opera review - tacky, edgy, brilliantMonday, 20 February 2023![]() All that glitters, titular treasure included, is dangerous childsplay in Richard Jones’s third UK staging of what Wagner called the “preliminary evening” to the three main operas of The Ring of the Nibelung. It’s nothing like the previous two, for... Read more... |
Swan Lake, English National Ballet, Coliseum review - the story of a deluded princeThursday, 19 January 2023![]() So there’s this prince, see, and he’s not at all happy. For a start, he never got over losing a parent when he was a child. He’s at odds with the world, sick to death with royal protocol and convinced that no one understands him. Worse, having too... Read more... |
- 1 of 15
- ››
![Subscribe to London Coliseum](https://theartsdesk.com/misc/feed.png)