L’Opéra de Quat’Sous at the Aix Festival

That’s The Three Penny Opera. While four “sous” wouldn’t get you in the door, the price of admission was far less than the usual offering at this lofty altar to…

Rolling River from Clare College, Cambridge

The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge has an impressive CD back catalogue, and this recent release of American choral music from harmonia mundi is no exception.  Recorded in 2022 in…

Songs of nostalgic love from Marie-Laure Garnier, Célia Oneto Bensaid and the Hanson Quartet

– This disc, released on the B-records label earlier this year, preserves a live performance given by the French-Guianan soprano Marie-Laure Garnier, the French pianist Célia Oneto Bensaid and the…

In conversation with the Brazilian baritone, Vitor Bispo

When I attended Royal Academy Opera’s Figaro back in March, Vitor Bispo’s authoritative Count Almaviva caught my ear and eye.  Subsequently, it was not surprising to learn that the Brazilian…

The Bartered Bride still charms at Garsington

Paul Curran’s 2019 The Bartered Bride, set in late 1950s Britain, makes a welcome return to the Wormsley Estate in Rosie Purdie’s likeable revival.  With a new cast, this folksy…

Woman at Point Zero at the Royal Opera House

Nawal El Saadawi’s 1975 novel, Woman at Point Zero, presents an ‘eve of death-row’ narrative which is a chilling indictment of patriarchal society.  An Egyptian woman, Firdaus, has been convicted…