“Oh! Woman! Woman! Woman!” So, cries Beaumarchais’s Figaro, in his
angry, self-chastising, at times self-pitying diatribe against the injustices
of ‘life’. “Oh, servants, servants, servants!” might be the Count’s
complaint in David McVicar’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro,
revived here for the sixth time.
Author: Anne Ozorio
The Marriage of Figaro, Royal Opera
StÈphane Degout, Wigmore Hall, London
Excellent Wigmore Hall recital with StÈphane Degout and Simon Lepper. Degout is one of the great names in French repertoire and in French baroque in particular.
Thebans: World Premiere at ENO
Julian Anderson’s Thebans at the Coliseum, London, absolutely justifies the ENO’s mission: opera, in English, and of national significance. Anderson is one of the most influential figures in modern British music.
Gound Faust – Calleja and Terfel, Royal Opera House London
Gounod’s Faust makes a much welcomed return to the Royal Opera House. With each new cast, the dynamic changes as the balance between singers shifts and brings out new insights. In that sense, every revival is an opportunity to revisit from new perspectives. This time Bryn Terfel sang MÈphistophÈlËs, with Joseph Calleja as Faust – stars whose allure certainly helped fill the hall to capacity. And the audience enjoyed a very good show.
Luke Bedford: Through His Teeth, Linbury, Royal Opera House
Can this be the best British opera in years? Luke Bedford’s Through His Teeth at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre is exceptional. Drop everything and go.
Harrison Birtwistle, Elliott Carter, Wigmore Hall, London
Celebrating the 80th birthday of one of the UK’s greatest composers (if not the greatest), this concert was an intriguing, and not always stimulating, mix. Birtwistle with Carter makes sense, but Birtwistle with Adams does not – or at least only within the remit of the concert series. The concert was actually entitled “Nash Inventions: American and British Masterworks, including an 80th Birthday Tribute to Sir Harrison Birtwistle” and was the final concert in the “Inventions” series.
Christoph PrÈgardien, Wigmore Hall
Christoph PrÈgardien has always been a master of creative, exciting ways with Lieder.
Jules Massenet: Manon, ROH
Tart with a heart, pleasure-loving ingÈnue, exploited naÔf, or femme fatale?
Songlives: Johannes Brahms
This recital, part of an inventive series overseen by pianist Malcolm
Martineau, did exactly what it said on the tin: it journeyed the length of
Brahms’ creative life as a composer of songs, from his earliest adolescent
essays, through the early years of expansion and experiment, to the period of
maturity and confidence as the composer established himself in Vienna,
concluding with the moving, nuanced testaments of Brahms’ final years.
The Sixteen: Jephtha
Harry Christophers and The Sixteen brought Handel’s final oratorio, Jephtha, to the Barbican (14 January 2014) preparatory to recording the work.