Tansy Davies’s works rarely fail to stimulate: her opera Between Worlds focused on the Twin Towers attack, which I described at the time as ‘a personal triumph,’ while works such…
Category: Reviews
Washington National Opera’s The Crucible: An American Classic, Operatized
“Let us not see witches in silly girls.” So says Rebecca Nurse in the first act of Robert Ward’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning operatic adaptation of The Crucible, and for a moment the…
Vivaldi’s Provocative First Opera Given a Sober Interpretation at Venice
Ottone in villa was Vivaldi’s first opera, although premiered not in his native Venice, but at nearby Vicenza in 1713. The title character, Otho, is one of the four Roman…
A Critically Honest Glance of Life in a Venetian Square from Genoa in Wolf-Ferrari’s Il campiello
The ‘little square’ of Wolf-Ferrari’s charming comic opera is one in Venice, as peopled by local characters in a mid-18th century play by Goldoni. It’s as though one of the domestic…
Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony at the RFH
There was a time when London’s walls were papered with Mahler 2s; certainly, in the 1980s, performances were regular occurrences with nary a month going by without one or other…
East and West meet at Opéra Bastille with Nixon in China
There can be few, if any, operas which feature a grand gathering of table-tennis players. Bizaare that may be, it’s not so unreasonable if you’re aware of the link between…
I Feel the Air of Another Planet: Barbara Hannigan and the Belcea Quartet
Listen to Beethoven’s Second Symphony and you would be hard put to make a connection with the composer’s inner turmoil and his realisation that the increasing signs of incurable deafness…
Telemann Old and New: Florilegium at Wigmore Hall
What a treat to hear a full concert of Telemann’s magnificent music. The dates of composition of the pieces span 30 + years: hence, “Telemann Old and New,” with the…
Annapolis Opera’s Hansel and Gretel: An Updated Setting That Works
With no curtain hiding it, the audience could enjoy Edward T. Morris’s angular, disjointed, abstract design of the ever-present trees on the set as they sat down in the theater…
IN Series’ Passio Gives Artists the Opportunity to Put Their Passions on Display
Continuing their Passion Plays festival with this second in a series of three works, IN Series this past weekend featured Passio, a work produced by Maribeth Diggle and Lucie de…