Gesualdo Six captivate a full house at St. Cross, Winchester

You can count on the fingers of one hand those a cappella vocal groups within the UK that come close to the finesse of The Gesualdo Six.  In terms of…

Antonio Pappano reveals Puccini’s La rondine in all its sunlit splendour

“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” This opening line from chapter three of Charles…

ENO’s fun-filled Pirates of Penzance

Currently showing at the Coliseum, few would argue this revival of Mike Leigh’s Pirates of Penzance isn’t entertaining. Never mind the absurd storyline involving an apprentice pirate whose wish to…

Flamboyant Rake’s Progress from Opéra national de Paris

The stars are truly aligned for this latest revival of Olivier Py’s Rake’s Progress, a glitzy production first unveiled at the Palais Garnier in 2008. Underpinned by a strong international…

ENO’s Rigoletto still makes dramatic sense

Jonathan Miller’s Mafioso-style Rigoletto, first unveiled in 1982, would seem to be imperishable and has returned yet again to the Coliseum. If the set has not already been infested with…

ENO’s thought-provoking and sinister Turn of the Screw

Henry James’s 1898 novella expresses far more than the blurred lines arising from ghostly apparitions or the absence of moral absolutes. In Britten’s darkest opera the composer removes some of…

Glyndebourne’s hilarious Il turco in Italia

The choice of Il turco in Italia for Glyndebourne in May 2021 might have been made in recognition of its London premiere exactly two centuries earlier in May 1821 at…

Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti / A Quiet Place at the Linbury theatre, Covent Garden – Riveting performances for Bernstein’s double bill, but his last opera remains largely unconvincing

Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti (1952) and A Quiet Place (1983) provide a fascinating glimpse of his stylistic development across some thirty years, seen through the lives of a dysfunctional family.…

Intensity of expression from Malin Byström at the Wigmore Hall

A recital programme as inviting as this from the acclaimed Swedish soprano would surely have attracted a full house for her Wigmore recital. A pity then to see so many…

Mixed performances within an austere Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House

Tchaikovsky’s tragic masterpiece can be presented with the minimum of means and on the smallest of scales, and this new production from American director Tedd Huffman, making his long-anticipated main…