fri 08/08/2025

David Nice

David Nice's picture
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

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

Read more...

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

Read more...

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

Read more...

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

Read more...

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

Read more...

Bavouzet, BBCSO, Stasevska, Barbican review - ardent souls in mythic magic

Read more...

Levit, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer, RFH review - anger unleashed, fantasy finessed in Prokofiev

Read more...

A Form of Exile: Edward Said and Late Style, CLS, Wood, QEH review - baggy ferment of ideas and sounds

Read more...

Mansfield Park, Guildhall School review - fun when frothy, chugging in romantic entanglements

Read more...

Uprising, Glyndebourne review - didactic community opera superbly performed

Read more...

The Ferryman, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin review - Jez Butterworth's Northern Irish epic comes close to home

Read more...

Fledermaus, Irish National Opera review - sex, please, we're Viennese/American/Russian/Irish

Read more...

Light of Passage, Royal Ballet review - Crystal Pite’s cosmic triptych powers back

Read more...

Mary, Queen of Scots, English National Opera review - heroic effort for an overcooked history lesson

Read more...

MacMillan's Ordo Virtutum, BBC Singers, Jeannin, Milton Court review - dramatic journey of a medieval soul

Read more...

Festen, Royal Opera review - firing on every front

Read more...

Pages

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Good Night, Oscar, Barbican review - sad story of a Hollywoo...

Back in the day, when America’s late-night chat show hosts and their guests sat happily smoking as they shot the breeze for a growing...

Album: The Black Keys - No Rain, No Flowers

For a band who started by entirely self-producing their own records and performing in basements...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Rob Auton / Saaniya Abbas

Rob Auton, Assembly Roxy ★...

BBC Proms: Láng, Cser, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fis...

“Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night,” quoth Blake. Beethoven and Bartók knew both...

Wilderness Festival 2025 review - seriously delirious escapi...

Wilderness is the kind of festival where you can overhear a conversation about the philosophical implications of rewilding whilst queuing...

Album: Ethel Cain - Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love...

This is a weird one: I do try and stay on top of pop culture, but for several years, Ethel Cain completely passed me by. You’d think I would have...

Weilerstein, NYO2, Payare / Dueñas, Malofeev, Edinburgh Inte...

NYO2 is a group of dazzlingly talented (and terrifyingly young-looking) 14-17 year olds from the USA, one of Carnegie Hall’s three national youth...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Monstering the Rocketman by...

Monstering the Rocketman by Henry Naylor, Pleasance Dome ★...

theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud on sex, lo...

"First love is always both terrible and wonderful at the same time", says the 60-year-Norwegian dramatist-novelist-director...