The gossamer web of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is sufficiently insubstantial and ambiguous to embrace multiple interpretative readings: the play can be a charming comic caper, a jangling journey through human pettiness and cruelty, a moonlit fairy fantasy or a shadowy erotic nightmare, and much more besides.
Year: 2018
Les FunÈrailles Royales de Louis XIV recreated at Versailles
Les FunÈrailles Royales de Louis XIV, with Ensemble Pygmalion, conducted by RaphaÎl Pichon now on DVD/Blu -ray from Harmonia Mundi. This captures the historic performance at the Chapelle Royale de Versailles in November 2015, on the 300th anniversary of the King’s death.
Robert Carsen’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream returns to ENO
Having given us Christopher Alden’s strangely dystopic production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2011, English National Opera (ENO) has opted for Robert Carsen’s bed-inspired vision for the latest revival of the opera at the London Coliseum.
Turandot in San Diego—Prima la voce
The big musical set pieces in Turandot require voice, voice, and more voice, and San Diego Opera has gifted us with a world-class cast of singing actors.
Dialogues de CarmÈlites at the Guildhall School: spiritual transcendence and transfiguration
Four years have passed since my last Dialogues des CarmÈlites, and on that occasion – Robert Carsen’s production for the ROH – heightened dramatic intensity, revolutionary insurrection (enhanced by an oppressed populace formed by a 67-strong Community Ensemble) and, under the baton of Simon Rattle, luxuriant musical rapture, were the order of the day.
‘B & B’ in a new key
Seattle Opera’s new production of BÈatrice et BÈnÈdict is best regarded as a noble experiment, performed expressly to see if Berlioz’ delectable 1862 opÈra comique can successfully be brought into the living repertory outside its native France. As such, it is quite a success.
Songs for Nancy: Bampton Classical Opera celebrate legendary soprano, Nancy Storace
Bampton Classical Opera’s 25th anniversary season opens with a
concert on 7th March at St John’s Smith Square to celebrate the
legendary soprano Nancy Storace.
TenebrÊ Responsories
recording by Stile Antico
Tomas Luis de Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories are designed to occupy the final three days of Holy Week, and contemplate the themes of loss, betrayal and death that dominate the Easter week. As such, the Responsories demand a sense of darkness, reflection and depth that this new recording by Stile Antico – at least partially – captures.
Mahler Symphony no 9, Daniel Harding SRSO
Mahler Symphony no 9 in D major, with Daniel Harding conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, new from Harmonia Mundi. A rewarding performance on many levels, not least because it’s thoughtfully sculpted, connecting structure to meaning.
A newly discovered song by Alma Mahler
It is well known that in addition to the fourteen songs by Alma Mahler published in her lifetime, several dozen more – perhaps as many as one hundred – were written and have been lost or destroyed.