ROH
Powder Her Face, RO, Linbury Studio TheatreThursday, 29 April 2010
Let's get straight to the fellatio, shall we. The blow job - and its Polaroid rendition - that led to the 1960s divorce trial of the dissolute Duchess of Argyll forms the centrepiece aria (an aria that "begins with words and ends with humming") in... Read more... |
Aida, Royal Opera HouseTuesday, 27 April 2010
David McVicar's new Aida production had an opening mise en scène of such unashamed ugliness, a revolving main feature (a wall of scaffolding) of such audacious featurelessness, a wardrobe of such brazen tastelessness (think Dungeons and... Read more... |
Cinderella, Royal BalletSunday, 18 April 2010
No longer, it seems, need ballet's most transformable heroine languish by the seasonal fireside. It's true that you'll have to wait until Christmas to see the most visually striking Cinderella of all again - Ashley Page's fitfully ingenious Scottish... Read more... |
Royal Opera House hits low noteMonday, 05 April 2010
As anyone on the Royal Opera House's mailing list will no doubt be aware, today is the first day you can book for the new season. In theory. Why in theory? Because currently I am number 1087 in the queue to get onto the website. Not even to buy... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Opera Directors Patrice Caurier and Moshe LeiserSaturday, 03 April 2010
It is rare enough for directors to collaborate in theatre, even rarer in opera. Patrice Caurier (b. Paris, 1954) and Moshe Leiser (b. Antwerp, 1956) began their long collaboration in their 20s. They are now in their 50s, and since that first... Read more... |
Production Gallery: Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser at the Royal Opera HouseSaturday, 03 April 2010
As co-directors of opera, Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser's fidelity to each other's artistic vision is one thing. Their devotion to Rossini is also relatively unusual. Their loyalty to and faith in their designers is almost as deep. In this... Read more... |
Concerto/The Judas Tree/Elite Syncopations, Royal BalletTuesday, 30 March 2010
Another night, another cast, another Judas Tree (see first-night review below this) - and yet more proof of what a tough, durable, shape-shifting piece Kenneth MacMillan created in his last year of life. Recently theartsdesk interviewee Thiago... Read more... |
The Cunning Little Vixen, Royal OperaSaturday, 20 March 2010
I have no compunction laying into vastly overrated composers, crazily overpaid conductors or lazily over-employed directors. I feel slightly more guilty doing the same to struggling singers or musicians. But a cast of tiny children dressed up as... Read more... |
As One/ Rushes/ Infra, Royal BalletSaturday, 20 February 2010
Someone sharp as a whip thought hard about the price-fun balance of the latest Royal Ballet triple bill. An accountant, probably. Deep inside the cloisters of the Royal Opera House, they said: “Now top price stalls are £97 each for Romeo and... Read more... |
Different Drummer: the Life of Kenneth MacMillanSaturday, 12 December 2009
The spy out in the cold, the alienated Heathcliff of ballet, rough-hewn, moody and a little frightening - this is an image that’s commonly paraded of the choreographer Kenneth MacMillan. His ballets stand up that image, staging barely watchable... Read more... |
The Tsarina's Slippers, Royal Opera HouseSaturday, 21 November 2009
A vain, capricious girl sends her lunk of a suitor on a quest for the best ruby slippers in the world, while said lunk's mother, the village witch, cosies up to the Devil. It's a whimsical Christmas Eve tale, exuberantly narrated by Nikolay Gogol in... Read more... |
2009 Classic FM Gramophone Awards, Dorchester HotelFriday, 02 October 2009The term "Awards Ceremony" can strike terror into the stoutest of hearts, but hats off to the masterminds of the 2009 Classic FM Gramophone awards. Their shindig at the Dorchester was enjoyable, educational, and even intermittently hilarious (and... Read more... |
