Proms 2025 – Riveting performance of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District

A wailing clarinet, a forlorn cor anglais and a post-coital trombone could hardly have been more ear-catching in this arresting performance of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk given at the Royal…

At the Intersection of Circus and Opera: Campra’s Le Carnaval de Venise at La Vache Baroque

First performed on January 20, 1699, André Campra’s comic opera/ballet to a libretto by Jean-François Regnard finally arrives at its UK premiere in late Summer 2025 at the Vache Baroque…

Ravel’s Life Becomes an Opera at the Festival Ravel

The Festival Ravel, based in and around Saint-Jean-de-Luz – the delightful town on France’s Atlantic coast that neighbours Ravel’s birthplace Ciboure – was launched in its current form in 2021.…

Alexander’s Feast at the Proms

Performances of Handel’s Alexander’s Feast don’t come along too often; much less the Dublin version of 1742, meticulously recreated here by Peter Whelan, the conductor/director of Irish Baroque, and Donald…

Ensemble OrQuesta’s Don Giovanni: Grimeborn Festival’s late-summer Mozart at Arcola Theatre

There’s a deconstructed vibe to Arcola Theatre’s Studio 1 – raw brick, concrete, wood and metal predominate – and, in answer to this, Marcio da Silva’s production of Don Giovanni…