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…

Diana Damrau, Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch at the Barbican Hall

Good to see such a full hall for these two beloved singers with one of the finest collaborative pianists of them all.  This programme was a celebration of the lives…

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…

Tosca returns to Covent Garden

Oh, what a difference a couple of months makes – Tosca returns to the Royal Opera, same production (the long-running Jonathna Kent) but with a new cast and conductor.  December…