fri 02/05/2025

stephen walsh

Bio
Stephen is a former Observer music critic and a regular contributor to The Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Independent and the BBC. He is the author of a major biography of Stravinsky and other books on Stravinsky, Bartók and Schumann. He holds a chair in music at Cardiff University.

Articles By Stephen Walsh

Madam Butterfly, Welsh National Opera review - decent performance, disagreeable context

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The Barber of Seville, Welsh National Opera review - back to work in an old banger

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The Cunning Little Vixen, Longborough Festival Opera review - life, death and the menopause in the forest

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theartsdesk at the Three Choirs Festival - Purcell, Gabriel Jackson and Duruflé

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Die Walküre, Longborough Festival Opera review - heroic defiance of farcical constraints

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Pagliacci, Opera Ensemble, Longborough review - stripped down but live

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Brecon Baroque, Podger, Brecon Cathedral online review - Bach recoloured

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Denis and Katya, Music Theatre Wales / Uproar, Rafferty review - disturbing the untroubled monotony of South Wales music

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Les vêpres siciliennes, Welsh National Opera review - spectacular, silly, but some great music

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Podger, Brecon Baroque, Hollingworth, Brecon Cathedral review - Bohemian footnotes yield the extraordinary

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The Cunning Little Vixen, Welsh National Opera review - family night in the forest

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Rigoletto, Welsh National Opera review - same old update, fine performance

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Carmen, Welsh National Opera review - intermittent brilliance in a gloomy, unclear environment

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theartsdesk at the Three Choirs Festival - the beautiful and the damned

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Don Giovanni, Longborough Festival Opera review - Mozart in the urinal

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The Turn of the Screw, Garsington Opera review - superb music drama on an open stage

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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some...

Die Walküre, Royal Opera review - total music drama

Wagner’s universe, in the second of his Ring operas which brings semi-humans on board to challenge the gods, matches exaltation and misery, terror...

Georgia Mancio, Alan Broadbent, Pizza Express Dean Street re...

Does it spark joy? Yes, definitely...and maybe we music critics should ask the Marie Kondo question more often. London-based vocalist/lyricist...

The Extraordinary Miss Flower review - odd mashup of music,...

The makers of The Extraordinary Miss Flower are billing it as a “performance film”, a subspecies of the concert-movie...

Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade review - how the gr...

Purporting to be a documentary about John Lennon in the 1970s, Borrowed Time is no such thing....

Album: PUP - Who Will Look After The Dogs?

PUP’s Who Will Look After The Dogs? is a raw and emotionally charged album that captures the band’s chaotic spirit while showing clear...

My Master Builder, Wyndham's Theatre review - Ewan McGr...

It's both brave and bracing to welcome new voices to the West End, but sometimes one wonders if such exposure necessarily works to the benefit of...

First Person: rising folk star Amelia Coburn on her French i...

“Sandra” is one of my favourite tracks from my album Between The Moon and the Milkman which was released last year.  While living in...

Adrian Utley / Eddie Henderson Project, Ronnie Scott's...

On the eve of recording an album at Real World Studios, guitarist Adrian Utley and the American trumpet player Eddie Henderson brought their “...