wed 02/07/2025

David Nice

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Bio
The classical music and opera editor of theartsdesk, David writes, lectures and broadcasts on music. A former music critic for The Guardian and The Sunday Correspondent, he has made regular appearances on BBC Radio 3, not least in the long-running series Building a Library. He has written short studies on Elgar, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and the history of opera, and is currently working on the second volume of his Prokofiev biography for Yale University Press. He runs two Zoom lecture series, Opera in Depth on Mondays and a symphonies course on Thursdays.

Articles By David Nice

Pimpinone, Royal Opera in the Linbury Theatre review - farce with a sting in its tail

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Die Walküre, Royal Opera review - total music drama

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Mahler 8, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - lights on high

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Philharmonia, Alsop, RFH / Levit, Abramović, QEH review - misalliance and magical marathon

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Ben and Imo, Orange Tree Theatre review - vibrant, strongly acted fiction about Britten and Imogen Holst

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MacMillan St John Passion, Boylan, National Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Hill, NCH Dublin review - flares around a fine Christ

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St Matthew Passion, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Whelan, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin review - the heights rescaled

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Kraggerud, Irish Chamber Orchestra, RIAM Dublin review - stomping, dancing, magical Vivaldi plus

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LSO, Noseda, Barbican review - Half Six shake-up

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Frang, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - every beauty revealed

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Levit, Sternath, Wigmore Hall review - pushing the boundaries in Prokofiev and Shostakovich

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Biss, National Symphony Orchestra, Kuokman, NCH Dublin review - full house goes wild for vivid epics

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Der fliegende Holländer, Irish National Opera review - sailing to nowhere

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Die Zauberflöte, Royal Academy of Music review - first-rate youth makes for a moving experience

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Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Whelan, St George’s Hanover Square review - Handel’s journey of a soul

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Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Marsalis, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - sounds above substance

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Poor, slightly silly Semele fries at the sight of lover Jupiter casting off his mortal form, but in Congreve’s and Handel’s supposedly happy...

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Sometimes, as the first act of Beethoven’s Fidelio closes, the chorus of prisoners discreetly fade away backstage as their brief taste of...

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