Bare light bulbs, dazzling lighting rigs and handheld torches dominate Jenny Ogilvie’s new staging of Pelléas et Mélisande at Longborough Festival Opera. The production fulfils a long-held dream by the…
Author: David Truslove
Two Impressive Song Recitals at Aldeburgh Festival
I caught up with two recitals during the festival’s final week; the first, Melodies and Lieder, explored French and German approaches to love, nature and what the next world may…
BBC Singers in Spectacular Form at the Aldeburgh Festival
Peace on earth in troubled times could have been a heading for this text-laden programme of mostly a cappella 20th century choral music. One expects a few challenging works from…
Britten to Boulez at the Aldeburgh Festival – Two Standout Concerts
“No one likes us, we don’t care” cheer the supporters of Millwall Football Club – words that might just as well belong to Pierre Boulez and his followers. It’s certainly…
A Captivating & Immersive Eugene Onegin from Wild Arts Opera
What a rare pleasure it was to encounter Wild Arts Opera at Layer Marney Tower in rural Essex. Amongst the delights within its fourth summer season, was the immersive experience…
Die Fledermaus splutters into life at the Grange Festival
Grange Festival’s Fledermaus is a sprawling new production which improves with each act and ends with rib-tickling gags from flamboyant cabaret artiste Myra du Bois. By the time you’ve finished…
Monteverdi Choir and Masaaki Suzuki at St Martin-in-the-Fields
Making his debut with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, Masaaki Suzuki directed an all-Bach concert celebrating the 300th anniversary of five works (four cantatas and a Sinfonia) written in…
Tchaikovsky’s disturbing but gripping Mazeppa at Grange Park
Scenes of torture, execution and bleak rows of coffins may not be the cheeriest of hors d’oeuvres before your interval bubbly. This is Grange Park Opera’s new staging of Tchaikovsky’s…
Gothic horror meets Sigmund Freud in Saint-Saëns’s The Silver Bell at Winchester’s Theatre Royal
Of Camille Saint-Saëns’s thirteen operas, only Samson and Dalila remains a regular part of the repertory. So, the enterprising New Sussex Opera must be congratulated on presenting the UK premiere…
A richly imagined and musically compelling Simon Boccanegra from Grange Park Opera
The Viennese critic Edward Hanslick once compared Brahms’ Fourth Symphony to “a dark well”, and declared “the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back”. Such…