It must be a dream. Though really it is a nightmare. The water sprite Rusalka tortures herself if she is telling the story, or tortures the man who has imagined her if he is telling the story. Either way the bizarrely construed confusion of Czech fairy tales has no easily apparent meaning or message.
Category: Reviews
Orlando in San Francisco
George Frederic Handel was both victim and survivor of the San Francisco Opera’s Orlando seen last night on the War Memorial stage.
Anthony Negus conducts Das Rheingold at Longborough
There are those in England who decorate their front lawns with ever-smiling garden gnomes, but in rural Gloucestershire the Graham family has gone one better; their converted barn is inhabited, not by diminutive porcelain figures, but fantasy creatures of Norse mythology – dwarves, giants and gods.
Carmen in San Francisco
A razzle-dazzle, bloodless Carmen at the War Memorial, further revival of Francesca Zambello’s 2006 Covent Garden production already franchised to Oslo, Sidney and Washington, D.C.
Weimar Berlin – Bittersweet Metropolis: Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra
Strictly speaking, The Weimar Republic began on 11th August 1919 when the Weimar Constitution was announced and ended with the Enabling Act of 23rd March 1933 when all power to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag was disbanded.
A superb Un ballo in maschera at Investec Opera Holland Park
Investec Opera Holland Park’s brilliantly cast new production of Un ballo in maschera reunites several of the creative team from last year’s terrific La traviata, with director Rodula Gaitanou, conductor Matthew Kofi Waldren and lighting designer Simon Corder being joined by the designer, takis.
A Classy Figaro at The Grange Festival
Where better than The Grange’s magnificent grounds to present Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. Hampshire’s neo-classical mansion, with its aristocratic connections and home to The Grange Festival, is the perfect setting to explore 18th century class structures as outlined in Lorenzo da Ponte’s libretto.
A satisfying Don Carlo opens Grange Park Opera 2019
Grange Park Opera opened its 2019 season with a revival of Jo Davies fine production of Verdi’s Don Carlo, one of the last (and finest) productions in the company’s old home in Hampshire.
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 2019
The first woman composer to receive the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize could not have been a worthier candidate.
Josquin des Prez and His Legacy: Cinquecento at Wigmore Hall
The renown and repute of Josquin des Prez (c.1450-1521) both during his lifetime and in the years following his death was so extensive and profound that many works by his contemporaries, working in Northern France and the Low Countries, were mis-attributed to him. One such was the six-part Requiem by Jean Richafort (c.1480-c.1550) which formed the heart of this poised concert by the vocal ensemble Cinquecento at Wigmore Hall, in which they gave pride of place to Josquin’s peers and successors and, in the final item, an esteemed forbear.