Cardiff
The Magic Flute, Welsh National Opera review - Mozart remodelled and remuddledMonday, 06 March 2023
So why not rewrite The Magic Flute with a new text and a heavily reconstructed plot? After all, the original was just a pantomime, albeit one that embodied one or two big issues of the day (1791), but essentially popular theatre with a text by a... Read more... |
Trouble in Butetown, Donmar Warehouse review - entertaining and warmheartedWednesday, 22 February 2023
With the fast-approaching anniversary of the latest war in Europe, our culture’s continued fascination with World War Two gets a contemporary boost from Trouble in Butetown at the Donmar Warehouse.Written by Diana Nneka Atuona, this follow-up to... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Musical saws, keyed fiddles and kestrelsSaturday, 14 January 2023
Dvořák: Symphonies 1-9, Legends, Slavonic Dances Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/José Serebrier (Warner Classics)The advantage of having all the Dvořák symphonies in one handy box is that you can explore the works that rarely get an airing;... Read more... |
Mahler 9, BBC NOW, Stenz, St David's Hall, Cardiff review - passionate without bloodshed on the rostrumSaturday, 19 November 2022
What a fascinating work Mahler's Ninth Symphony is! Marvellous and astonishing as well, of course. But these qualities are, so to speak, written into the score (did Mahler ever compose anything not designed to astonish?).Yet the fascination comes... Read more... |
Jenůfa, Welsh National Opera review - powerful drama with a kitsch tailpieceSunday, 13 March 2022
If like me you regard the ending of Janáček’s Jenůfa as one of the most moving scenes in all opera, you might care to consider how it would be possible to deflate it in spite of the best singing imaginable. You might, for instance, bring up a back... Read more... |
Don Giovanni, Welsh National Opera review - fine young cast let down by unhelpful conductingSaturday, 19 February 2022
If Don Giovanni is not the greatest opera ever written, it’s at least one of the very, very few that even in erratic performances have the capacity to seem it. There was so much wrong, in detail, with WNO’s revival of John Caird’s now eleven year-... Read more... |
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021 Final, BBC Four review – an embarrassment of vocal richesMonday, 21 June 2021
A massive musical hope for the future is what we all need right now, after 14 stop/semi-start months and a threatened decimation of the concert and opera scene, the danger of which isn't over yet. This year’s BBC Cardiff Singer of the World... Read more... |
BBC Proms live online: Romaniw, BBCNOW, Bancroft - creating 'hwyl' with no audienceWednesday, 09 September 2020
I’ve been missing the sound of applause. That realisation dawned on me on the couple of occasions when it broke out spontaneously in last night’s Prom. There was no audience at Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff Bay, so these particular bouts of hand-... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Ives, Shchedrin, VeprikSaturday, 14 March 2020
Ives: Symphonies 3&4 San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/Michael Tilson Thomas (SFS Media)Charles Ives’s Symphony No. 3, subtitled ‘The Camp Meeting’, was completed in 1911 but waited until 1946 for its premiere, long after Ives had given up... Read more... |
Bombay Bicycle Club, Cardiff University Students Union review - guitar pop, perfectedSunday, 26 January 2020
When a band claims a crowd is the loudest of the tour, you can usually guarantee they've said it on every other date too. But for one sweaty night in Cardiff, you had to believe them. Bombay Bicycle Club returned after a six-year absence and were... Read more... |
The Killers, Cardiff Castle review - The Man arrivesMonday, 01 July 2019
With the fabled fields of Glastonbury on the horizon, The Killers chose the equally mythic Cardiff Castle as their practice run. While Stormzy was making history on the Pyramid Stage, the Welsh capital played witness to a precision-engineered pop-... Read more... |
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2019 Final, BBC Four review - stage confidence, supportive set-upMonday, 24 June 2019
If ever there was an instance of the great being the enemy of the good, it happened after all the live singing on Saturday night. This year we all remember, with sadness for his early death and amazement at his burning, burnished talent, the... Read more... |
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