Dramatic intrigue and heart-warming nostalgia are perfectly matched in E. Nesbit‘s The Railway Children – the author’s enduring tale that first appeared in serialised form in 1905. Over five decades…
Category: Reviews
Cherubini’s Medea at Lyric Opera of Chicago
The Lyric Opera of Chicago opened its 2025-2026 season recently with a dramatically powerful production of Luigi Cherubini’s Medea. The opera is a co-production of Lyric Opera of Chicago, the…
The Guildhall School’s Double Billing of Smyth and Respighi
Fairy tales have always been a deep source of inspiration for the creative arts. In the German context they tie in with an age-old fascination for and involvement with the…
Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène with the LPO and Karina Canellakis
Lili Boulanger was one of the most fascinating – and tragic – of female twentieth-century composers. The first woman to win the Prix de Rome in 1912, for the work…
Historic Philadelphia Recital Comes To Rural Virginia with Loudoun Lyric Opera
One hundred years after its original performance in 1915, Dorothy Leona Jewell’s recital in Philadelphia received a reenactment this past weekend at Faith Chapel Gathering Place in Lucketts, VA. Jewell’s…
Delius’s Problematic Conception in The Magic Fountain Not Overcome in Wexford’s Production
The inspiration for Delius’s The Magic Fountain (1895) stems from his time in Florida, when he ran an orange plantation for his father. It was the first in a trilogy…
An all-British line-up with the Sinfonia of London
These days it’s comparatively rare to come across a concert programme consisting entirely of works by different British composers, performed by an orchestra made up of mostly British-born musicians, with…
Opera Baltimore and OperaDelaware’s Tosca: Viva To The Diva
It’s been said that opera companies program Tosca as an “easy” way to end their season. It is, after all, an opera that focuses on only three principal characters, and…
Wexford’s Riveting Blend of Comedy and Tragedy in Handel’s Last Italian Opera
In the last three or so of his operas, Handel demonstrated a fascinating move towards mixing elements of comedy within the format of opera seria that he had worked with…
Annapolis Opera’s Don Giovanni: Vocal Performances Worthy Of A Sold-Out House
Who can resist a well-done classic? No one, apparently, as Maryland Hall was sold out for the second performance of Annapolis Opera’s Don Giovanni this past weekend. From the moment…