The matter of Wagner’s antisemitism – or, more to the point, whether it permeates his work, and its influence upon subsequent German cultural and social history – is a debate likely to…
Author: Curtis Rogers
Seamless, genial comedy for Glyndebourne’s The Barber of Seville
This revival of Annabel Arden’s production of The Barber of Seville for Glyndebourne happily falls within the same season in which its sequel The Marriage of Figaro will also be…
RAM students’ powerful and vivid enactment of Britten’s Biblical drama The Burning Fiery Furnace
The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966) is the second of Britten’s Church Parables, based on an episode from the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament. Its immediate literary inspiration is…
Telemann’s witty social comedy Pimpinone receives a blunter feminist interpretation by Royal Ballet and Opera
Telemann’s Pimpinone (1725) is perhaps second only to Pergolesi’s La serva padrona (whose plot it pre-empts) as one of the best-known examples of that curiosity of 18th century musical theatre,…
A Colourful Realisation of a Galuppi Opera in Its First Modern Performance
Arcifanfo is the recently rediscovered collaboration between two 18th century Venetians, Baldassare Galuppi and Carlo Goldoni, whose work on many operas together was seminal in the development of opera buffa.…
Pier Luigi Pizzi offers a dark, tense vision for La Fenice’s first Anna Bolena in more than a century and a half
Donizetti’s Anna Bolena regained a place on the operatic stage since at least the rediscovery of bel canto repertoire after the Second World War, through the advocacy of singers such…
Chelsea Opera Group thrillingly reveal the wonderful score of Lalo’s Le roi d’Ys
For all that Lalo’s Le roi d’Ys (premiered in 1888) has scarcely maintained any foothold in the operatic repertoire in modern times, it packs quite a punch, both for its…
Musical liveliness transcends some obscurities in the Royal Academy’s hospital-based Magic Flute
Jamie Manton’s production of The Magic Flute for the Royal Academy of Music takes its cue from Tamino’s predicament at the opera’s opening – wounded and in mortal danger. Accordingly,…
On Haydn’s desert island at the Paris Opera
L’isola disabitata (The Uninhabited Island) is a comparatively late opera by Haydn, or rather an azione teatrale, which calls for only four soloists and an intimate setting. Indeed, it may…
An unconventional, satirical take on Weber’s Der Freischütz for Opera Ballet Vlaanderen at Antwerp
Weber’s Der Freischütz is well-known – and variously admired or deplored – as one of the seminal works of German musical Romanticism. Despite its fame and influence, it isn’t now…