Is Donizetti’s Don Pasquale a charming comedy with a satirical punch, or a sharp psychological study of the irresolvable conflicts of human existence?
Author: Claire Seymour
Chelsea Opera Group perform Verdi’s first comic opera: Un giorno di regno
Until Verdi turned his attention to Shakespeare’s Fat Knight in 1893, Il giorno di regno (A King for a Day), first performed at La Scala in 1840, was the composer’s only comic opera.
A humourless hike to Hades: Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld at ENO
Q. “Is there an art form you don’t relate to?” A. “Opera. It’s a dreadful sound – it just doesn’t sound like the human voice.”
Welsh National Opera revive glorious Cunning Little Vixen
First unveiled in 1980, this celebrated WNO production shows no sign of running out of steam. Thanks to director David Pountney and revival director Elaine Tyler-Hall, this Vixen has become a classic, its wide appeal owing much to the late Maria Bj¯rnson’s colourful costumes and picture book designs (superbly lit by Nick Chelton) which still gladden the eye after nearly forty years with their cinematic detail and pre-echoes of Teletubbies.
Romantic lieder at Wigmore Hall: Elizabeth Watts and Julius Drake
When she won the Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize in the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, soprano Elizabeth Watts placed rarely performed songs by a female composer, Elizabeth Maconchy, alongside Austro-German lieder from the late nineteenth century.
Annilese Miskimmon appointed as English National Opera’s Artistic Director
English National Opera has appointed Annilese Miskimmon as Artistic Director.
ETO’s The Silver Lake at the Hackney Empire
‘If the present is already lost, then I want to save the future.’
William Alwyn’s Miss Julie at the Barbican Hall
“Opera is not a play”, or so William Alwyn wrote when faced with criticism that his adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie wasn’t purist enough. The plot is, in fact, largely intact; what Alwyn tends to strip out is some of Strindberg’s symbolism, especially that which links to what were (then) revolutionary nineteenth-century ideas based around social Darwinism. What the opera and play do share, however, is a view of class – of both its mobility and immobility – and this was something this BBC concert performance very much played on.
The Academy of Ancient Music’s superb recording of Handel’s Brockes-Passion
The Academy of Ancient Music’s new release of Handel’s Brockes-Passion – recorded around the AAM’s live performance at the Barbican Hall on the 300th anniversary of the first performance in 1719 – combines serious musicological and historical scholarship with vibrant musicianship and artistry.
Mark Padmore reflects on Britten’s Death in Venice
“At the start, one knows ‘bits’ of it,” says tenor Mark Padmore, somewhat wryly, when I meet him at the Stage Door of the Royal Opera House where the tenor has just begun rehearsals for David McVicar’s new production of Death in Venice, which in November will return Britten’s opera to the ROH stage for the first time since 1992.