Everything about Wagner is big – very big. The instrumentation for the preliminary evening of Der Ring der Nibelungen alone encompasses eight horns doubling on Wagner tubas, seven harps and…
Year: 2025
Life, death and holidays: lieder by Schubert, Loewe and Krenek at Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall gave London audiences the opportunity to hear lieder recitals by two leading German-speaking baritones within the space of a weekend. Konstantin Krimmel was joined by pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz…
Treachery and lechery in English National Opera’s new The Marriage of Figaro
I’ve always found it strange that in the English language the title of one of the most popular pieces in the repertory is rendered as The Marriage of Figaro. The…
Compelling performances from OperaUpClose:
Riders to the Sea & The Last Bit of the Moon
What does one perform with Vaughan Williams’s seldom heard one act tragedy about a mother who has lost her last surviving son somewhere off the west coast of Ireland? Drawn…
A powerful and unsettling Aida at the Royal Opera House
An empty stage enclosing grey walls of a concrete bunker. This is the initial impression we have of Robert Carsen’s Aida, presented at the Royal Opera House in a first revival by Gilles…
Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco in Parma
The least performed of the Verdi oeuvre, not included in the Verdi canon, Giovanna d’arco (Joan of Arc) was given another chance just now on one of Italy’s famed Verdi…
L’Amant Anonyme in Philadelphia
Among classical composers, Joseph Bologne’s biography is unique. Born in 1745 in the French Caribbean colony of Guadeloupe as the illegitimate son of a wealthy planter and a 19-year-old creole…
La Fanciulla del West in Bologna
Banished for the moment from its historic 1763 theater (closed for the renovation of its public areas) the prestigious Teatro Comunale di Bologna finds itself at the Comunale Nouveau [sic],…
A disconcerting new Ariadne auf Naxos at Hamburg State Opera
The problem with all myths is that there is no such thing as an Urtext. They’re handed down from one generation to the next, and it’s a very long stretch from…
Georgian born and Italian-trained singer George Andguladze debuts at the Royal Opera House
David Truslove talks to the operatic bass George Andguladze who makes his Covent Garden debut as the King of Egypt in Verdi’s Aida. Conducted by Daniel Oren, this is the…