This seems to be quite the year for Opera Holland Park: A revelatory Puccini Edgar, a powerful coupling of Wolf-Ferrari (Il segreto di Susanna) and Leoncavallo (Pagliacci), and now the…
Author: Colin Clarke
A Sign of the Times: the LAPO’s remarkable Fidelio
After a traditionally-framed concert the night before – a John Williams ‘Overture’ (Olympic Fanfare), a ‘Concerto’ (Gabriela Ortiz’s Altar de cuerda) and Dvořäk’s symphony, ’From the New World’ – tradition…
Handel’s Arianna: An unforgettable close to the London Handel Festival’s ‘Spring Awakenings’ festival
This is not the London Handel Festival’s first stab at Handel’s unjustly neglected opera, Arianna in Creta; it was previously staged at the Royal College of Music in March 2014.…
What a difference a conductor makes: Puccini’s less-wounded Butterfly
Two years ago, on this very site, I reviewed a matinée performance of Madama Butterfly at Covent Garden; the review was titled A Wounded Butterfly. The beautiful production by Moshe…
Janáček’s Jenůfa burns intensely at ENO
One of Janáček’s most famous operas, Jenůfa is a clear masterpiece. Janáček, in his remarkable adaptation of Gabriela Preissová’s play Její pastorkyña (Her Stepdaughter), offers a searing tale of infanticide…
The Dutchman returns to Covent Garden
Tim Albery’s production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer – which presents, as the composer intended, the opera in one unbroken, 140-minute span and concludes with the ‘Dresden’ ending of emphatic…
A Wounded Butterfly at Covent Garden
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, beautiful though it is, presents issues for contemporary values; hence the current rethink of the Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier production. The Royal Opera brought in Japanese…
Nadine Benjamin triumphs in ENO’s La bohème
The fifth revival of Jonathan Miller’s well worn-in production of Bohéme has brought with it a number of revelations. On the first night (February 3), it was the conducting of…
London Handel Festival International Singing Competition Final
With an internationally renowned jury, the London Handel Festival International Singing Competition carries a fair amount of clout. Jurors were: David Gowland (chairman, Artistic Director of the Jette Parker Scheme…