thu 19/06/2025

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

Prom 15: Bavarian RSO, Nézet-Séguin review - perfect Beethoven, nuanced Shostakovich

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Prom 12: Benedetti, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Wigglesworth - adrenalin highs and string sound to die for

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theartsdesk in Dalarna: Rhinegold in a Swedish barn by a lake

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L'Arlesiana, Opera Holland Park review - at last, a rare Italian gem

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War and Peace, Welsh National Opera, Royal Opera House - bold epic weakened by loosely-directed characterisations

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theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2019 - in heaven with Dante's Purgatorio and Estonian rites

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Peter Gynt, National Theatre review - towering protagonist, middle-way production

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Alder, The Mozartists, Page, Wigmore Hall review - a Mozart feast for eyes and ears

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theartsdesk in Treviso - cultural patronage, Italian style

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Noye's Fludde, ENO/Theatre Royal Stratford East review - two-dimensional music theatre

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BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2019 Final, BBC Four review - stage confidence, supportive set-up

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The Damned, Comédie-Française, Barbican review - slow-burn horrors in devastating images

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theartsdesk in Svalbard: cultural excellence at the top of the world

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Boris Godunov, Royal Opera review - cool and surgical, with periodic chills

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Hansel and Gretel, ENO, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - into the broomstick woods

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Cate Haste: Passionate Spirit - The Life of Alma Mahler review - a racy life pacily narrated

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'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
The Midnight Bell, Sadler's Wells review - A first repr...

Rarely has a revival given a firmer thumbs-up for the future of dance-theatre. Yet Matthew Bourne’s latest show, first aired at the tail-end of...

Album: HAIM - I Quit

Haim’s profile just grows and grows. Since their last album, youngest sibling Alana’s starring role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s whimsical Seventies...

Aldeburgh Festival, Weekend 1 review - dance to the music of...

This year’s Aldeburgh Festival – the 76th – takes as its motto a line from Shelley‘s Prometheus Unbound. The poet speaks of despair “...

Bonnie Raitt, Brighton Dome review - a top night with a char...

If you walked into a bar in the US, say in one of the southern states, and Bonnie Raitt and her band were playing, you’d have the best night of...

Hidden Door Festival 2025 review - the transformative Edinbu...

"When I was your age, I worked in a corrugated cardboard factory!" is a phrase my father was fond of telling me as a teenager, presumably in an...

Edward Burra, Tate Britain review - watercolour made mainstr...

It’s unusual to leave an exhibition liking an artist’s work less than when you went in, but...

Joyceana around Bloomsday, Dublin review - flawless adaptati...

It amuses me that Dubliners dress up in Edwardian finery on 16 June. After all, this was the date in 1904 when James Joyce first walked out with...

Stereophonic, Duke of York's Theatre review - rich slic...

The tag “the most Tony-nominated play of all time” may mean less to London theatregoers than it does to New Yorkers, but Stereophonic,...