In December, Japanese theatres and concert halls customarily perform two blockbusters: Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Now, a third seasonal piece might have been discovered: certainly William Kentridge’s 2005…
Gesualdo Six captivate a full house at St. Cross, Winchester
You can count on the fingers of one hand those a cappella vocal groups within the UK that come close to the finesse of The Gesualdo Six. In terms of…
Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in memory of Andrew Davis
This was to have been something entirely different: Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ, conducted by Andrew Davis. The death of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s former chief conductor led not only to…
Antonio Pappano reveals Puccini’s La rondine in all its sunlit splendour
“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” This opening line from chapter three of Charles…
Rossini’s Guillaume Tell Triumphs at the New National Theatre Tokyo
To most Japanese, the overture of Guillaume Tell (William Tell) is familiar, evoking memories of Sports Day at elementary school. Nevertheless, this was the first full-scale staged production of Rossini’s…
ENO’s fun-filled Pirates of Penzance
Currently showing at the Coliseum, few would argue this revival of Mike Leigh’s Pirates of Penzance isn’t entertaining. Never mind the absurd storyline involving an apprentice pirate whose wish to…
Fanny and Alexander: world premiere of Mikael Karlsson’s opera at La Monnaie, Brussels
Not only are Ingmar Bergman’s films very ‘operatic’ in their poetic but visceral way of dealing with matters of life and death, opera as an art form had a place…
Flamboyant Rake’s Progress from Opéra national de Paris
The stars are truly aligned for this latest revival of Olivier Py’s Rake’s Progress, a glitzy production first unveiled at the Palais Garnier in 2008. Underpinned by a strong international…
The BBCSO explore the relationship with God and Man in works by Haydn, Moussa and Strauss
On the face of it music criticism has often seemed to me a very unimaginative profession. Take this BBCSO concert, for example, the programming of which has largely appeared to…
Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Lyric Opera of Chicago
The production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, directed by Barbara Gaines and first featured during the 2015-16 season, has returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago. While audiences…