Having experienced Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Wolf Trap amphitheater two years ago, I was prepared to enjoy an operatic evening in the outdoors in going to see The Marriage…
Britten to Boulez at the Aldeburgh Festival – two standout concerts
“No one likes us, we don’t care” cheer the supporters of Millwall Football Club – words that might just as well belong to Pierre Boulez and his followers. It’s certainly…
A Captivating & Immersive Eugene Onegin from Wild Arts Opera
What a rare pleasure it was to encounter Wild Arts Opera at Layer Marney Tower in rural Essex. Amongst the delights within its fourth summer season, was the immersive experience…
Die Fledermaus splutters into life at the Grange Festival
Grange Festival’s Fledermaus is a sprawling new production which improves with each act and ends with rib-tickling gags from flamboyant cabaret artiste Myra du Bois. By the time you’ve finished…
At Fifty, OTSL Comes Full Circle with Don Pasquale
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is celebrating fifty fabulous years with this festival, and by returning to the first opera it ever presented, Don Pasquale, it has mined anniversary gold.…
Haunting House in the Gateway City
With its stylish festival level performance of the fiercely original piece, This House, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis continues its almost unrivaled record for commissioning and staging World Premieres. This…
A journey through space and time with Benjamin Appl
Schubert’s Winterreise is listed under the catalogue number D911 as part of the Deutsch-Verzeichnis, the method by which all his works are uniquely identified. More often than not, this sole…
A Mafia Widow: Lehár’s ever-popular score undergoes a transplant
It’s been a while: well, over 40 years, since I heard Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe, in an amdram production just outside of Manchester in which I was playing French horn.…
Saint Louis Strauss Drives Audiences Batty
Unrelenting, raucous animation was the salient characteristic that pervaded Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’ lively version of that evergreen favorite, Die Fledermaus (The Bat), and the capacity audience roared in…
A Dreamy Midsummer Night in Saint Louis
From the downbeat to Britten’s A Midsummer Night Dream at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, we instantly sensed there was musical magic in the air, for the esteemed Leonard Slatkin…