Royal Opera
Classical music/Opera direct to home 19 – and two before a live audienceFriday, 03 July 2020
It’s begun: very limited access to live music, the chance to sit before one or two players in the same room – as we were doing only three and a half months ago, in some cases thousands of us before an orchestra of up to a hundred musicians. When the... Read more... |
Live from Covent Garden 2, Royal Opera and Ballet online review - heaven and earth in a nutshellWednesday, 24 June 2020
Solitude, mortality and transcendence have never been more profoundly expressed in music than by Mahler, who composed Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) in the valley of the shadow of death (too superstitious to give it the name of Ninth... Read more... |
Classical music/Opera direct to home 16 - putting freelancers firstFriday, 19 June 2020
The latest wave of musicians to make their voices heard comes from the freelancers who haven't been able to claim anything so far for their loss of income and of the ability to work together. As a group of top players putting out their plea observes... Read more... |
Live from Covent Garden 1, Royal Opera and Ballet online review - small-scale but perfectly formedSunday, 14 June 2020
Vintage champagne was served up last night, and whether you found the glass half-full or half-empty would depend on your perspective. In the bigger picture, it's disappointing that not more musicians could return to the Royal Opera House stage, and... Read more... |
Classical music/Opera direct to home 15 - opening up at different ratesFriday, 12 June 2020
It's taken time, but at last we have two major musical figures speaking up for cultural institutions in dire straits. Following a crucial, detailed article by Charlotte Higgins in The Guardian, Simon Rattle and Mark Elder have finally taken up the... Read more... |
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 5 - orchestral manoeuvres in the lightMonday, 06 April 2020
Necessity has certainly been the mother of invention over the past three weeks, and orchestras especially, left in the dark with no means of coming together other than virtually, have had to adapt double-quick. The players, of course, are... Read more... |
Susanna, Royal Opera/London Handel Festival review - fitful shiningsThursday, 12 March 2020
That virtue can be fascinating and prayers to a just God dramatic have been proved in riveting productions of two late Handel oratorios, Theodora and Jephtha. Whether Susanna can ever be reclaimed for the stage as powerfully seems unlikely, but this... Read more... |
Fidelio, Royal Opera review - fitfully vivid singing in a dramatic voidMonday, 02 March 2020
Emblazoned on a drop-curtain in front of a mirror-image of the auditorium, the three great tenets of the French revolution seem to be mocking us right at the start, above all the second of them: equality, really, given the make-up of the Royal Opera... Read more... |
Alice's Adventures Under Ground, Royal Opera review - a blast for children of all agesWednesday, 05 February 2020
"About as much fun as you can have with your clothes on," promised a member of the two Royal Opera casts teamworking their way through multiple roles and costume changes for what in effect is Alice's Adventures Under Ground and Through the Looking... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Director Sir Jonathan MillerThursday, 28 November 2019
Doctor, writer, sculptor, curator, comedian, presenter and director, Sir Jonathan Miller (1934-2019) was one of the mighty cultural and intellectual omnivores of our age. To those of a musical or theatrical bent, however, Miller was above all one of... Read more... |
Death in Venice, Royal Opera review – expansive but intimate evocationsWednesday, 27 November 2019
Death in Venice is usually a dark and claustrophobic affair. It lends itself to small-scale staging with minimal props and suggestive, low-key lighting. But for this new production at the Royal Opera, director David McVicar has taken a different... Read more... |
Don Pasquale, Royal Opera review - fun and frolics in stylish new productionSaturday, 19 October 2019
Venetian director Damiano Michieletto’s new Royal Opera production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale is a clever and entertaining mix of old and new. The curtain rises to reveal a skeleton of a 1960s style house - there are doors, but no walls, revealing... Read more... |
