Mid Wales Opera which had been threatened with closure as a result of Arts Council Wales (ACW) cuts has been thrown a vital lifeline with a cash injection of £75,906 from…
Month: May 2024
Thrilling singing from Tenebrae in Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles
Forming a choral centrepiece at the Newbury Spring Festival, Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles was given an inspirational outing by the internationally acclaimed ensemble Tenebrae at Douai Abbey in Woolhampton,…
A sensational Salomé from Lise Davidsen at Opéra Bastille
Over a century after its 1905 Dresden premiere, Richard Strauss’s Salomé still has the capacity to disturb. Given that audiences have pretty much seen everything on the operatic stage, should…
Despite some unevenness, vivid musical and dramatic interpretations remain intact for Vivaldi’s lively L’Olimpiade
For those of us with little or no interest in sport, an Olympics year does at least offer the opportunity for otherwise rarely seen operatic settings of Metastasio’s libretto L’Olimpiade, whose action…
Asmik Grigorian in Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera
Madama Butterfly is firmly ensconced among the top-ten “most performed” operas worldwide and the Met’s current production is nearly two decades old. Yet, over the past few weeks, the Met…
Rapturous reception of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta in Poole
“Who’d have thought it could happen in Poole” voiced one overawed audience member. He was not referring to the standing ovation, although that in itself was exceptional, but the outstanding…
Celebrating the Schoenberg Sesquicentennial at Carnegie Hall
Over the past generation, the polymathic conductor Leon Botstein has done much to promote large and obscure late-Romantic works. A recent sold-out performance of Arnold Schonberg’s Gurre-Lieder at Carnegie Hall…
Jurowski’s London Philharmonic Ring comes to a magnificent end with Götterdämmerung
Life can sometimes imitate art and in the case of this concert performance of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung that has certainly been so. Originally scheduled for 2021, at the end of Vladimir…