Those lavish costumes, the fiery sun and the troupe of jugglers continue to leave a vivid impression in Phelim McDermott’s sumptuous staging of Akhnaten. Now in its second revival since…
Author: David Truslove
Mary Bevan on superb form in Signum’s Visions Illuminées
If you think soprano Mary Bevan is associated only with Baroque repertoire, think again. Yes, she’s recently wowed audiences in Handel’s Alcina at Covent Garden, and she’s about to embark…
WNO’s radical Magic Flute misfires
Out with the old and in with the new is the modus operandi for aspiring operatic directors. In this new production of The Magic Flute Daisy Evans takes her prerogative…
Bewitching Hänsel & Gretel from Mid Wales Opera
Whenever Hänsel and Gretel comes around, it’s always an opportunity for a director to bring a fresh perspective on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Humperdinck’s 1893 stage work, hailed by Richard…
Sacroprofano: Sacred & Secular Vivaldi from Tim Mead and Arcangelo
On the concert platform, operatic stage and recording studio, Tim Mead has established himself as one of Britain’s foremost countertenors. This recent issue from Alpha is his first solo album…
Carmen at English National Opera
Calixto Bieito’s grimly visualised Carmen has now reached its third revival. First presented by ENO at the Coliseum in 2012 (and much travelled around Europe since its launch in Barcelona…
A dramatic masterclass from Véronique Gens in Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine
This recent issue from Alpha brings together two sides of Poulenc’s strikingly individual musical personality. Both works, some ten years apart, inhabit a similar bittersweet quality, yet while his operatic…
Echo: an exquisite new disc from Ruby Hughes
“Words mean more than what is set down on paper”, the poet Maya Angelou has written. “It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning”. These assertions may…
Superb selection of Psalms from the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge
This recent collection of psalms from the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge is a fine tribute to the work of Andrew Nethsingha who has been its Director of Music…
A masterly traversal of Duparc songs
The habit among composers of almost excessive self-criticism has been a curiously French phenomenon over the last century, typified by Dukas, Duruflé and his younger, more progressive contemporary Henri Dutilleux.…