thu 10/07/2025

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

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

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Rusalka, Glyndebourne Festival review - away with the distressed fairies

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Brundibár, Welsh National Opera review - bittersweet children's opera from the ghetto

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Das Rheingold, Longborough Festival Opera review - more Wagnerian excellence in a Gloucestershire barn

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I Fagiolini, Hollingworth, St George's Bristol review - Leonardo and music, immortal, invisible

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The Magic Flute, Welsh National Opera review - charming to hear, charmless to look at

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Un ballo in maschera, Welsh National Opera review - opera as brilliant self-parody

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War and Peace, Welsh National Opera review - an Operation Barbarossa that comes off

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theartsdesk at the Three Choirs Festival - religion, passion and Nordic fakery

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Prom 5, Pelléas et Mélisande, Glyndebourne review - for the ears, not the eyes

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Ariadne auf Naxos, Longborough Festival review - appetising energy and wit

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La Traviata, Longborough Festival review - muddled director, vocal mixed bag

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theartsdesk at the Leipzig Bach Festival: a cantata blockbuster

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Der fliegende Holländer, Longborough Festival review - stand and deliver on an empty stage

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Madama Butterfly, Glyndebourne review - perverse staging, outstanding cast

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BBC NOW, Alexandre Bloch, Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff review - tonal music in an avant-garde sense

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Andrew Sarris, doyen of auteurist film critics, dubbed A Hard Day’s Night “the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals”. Wild over-...