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…
Author: David Truslove
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…
PROM 59: ‘French Fantasy’
Performances of varying quality, but much to enjoy in a couple of premieres and some exhilarating Ravel. Music of solace and sensuality formed the twin peaks of this all-French programme…
PROM 50: A curate’s egg of an evening but a magnificent Glagolitic Mass
For the second of two consecutive appearances at the Albert Hall, Jakub Hrůša and his Prague-based orchestra delivered an all-Czech programme showcasing a Proms premiere, a seldom-heard piano concerto and…