Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto tells the story of a small community in which one man’s absolute and arbitrary power eventually corrupts everyone around him. The tragedy is universal: if you find…
Category: Reviews
Un ballo in maschera in San Francisco
Where were the censors who once plagued Verdi’s Ballo just now when they should have saved us from an abysmal staging at San Francisco Opera! It was the 2016 production…
La Fenice’s Turandot emphasises the opera’s mythical element
The rich, vivid score, and dramatic – even sensational and violent – scenario of Puccini’s last opera (not quite complete at his death exactly one hundred years ago, in 1924)…
La Fenice’s double bill of short operas by father-in-law and son-in-law
By happy coincidence 2024 is an anniversary year for both Arnold Schoenberg (born 1874) and his son-in-law Luigi Nono (born 1924). Judging from the lack of works by either composer…
A comic take on Gazzaniga’s Alcina from Bampton Classical Opera
Bampton Classical Opera brought Giuseppe Gazzaniga’s L’Isole d’Alcina (Alcina’s Island) to London in Gilly French’s English translation in a production directed and designed by Jeremy Gray with Thomas Blunt conducting…
PROM 68: Garsington’s Midsummer Magic at the Proms
For its first outing to the Henry Wood Proms, Garsington Opera brought with it not only the luxury vehicle of the Philharmonia Orchestra, but a crack team of soloists –…
Falstaff in Paris
It was magic from the start, Verdi’s in medias res chords exploded and tumbled, Danish conductor Michael Schønwandt established the solid, brisk beat, brilliantly illuminating Verdi’s vast musical complexities to…
PROM 56: Bruckner and God.
The BBC Singers and the Berliner Philharmoniker in motets and the Fifth Symphony Anton Bruckner was first and foremost a man of God. Much of what he composed was defined…
Porpora’s Ifigenia in Aulide in Bayreuth
Ifigenia in Aulide: Bayreuth Baroque 2024 opens with the modern premiere of Porpora’s 1735 opera It was with an opera by Nicola Antonio Porpora – Carlo il Calvo – that…
PROM 59: ‘French Fantasy’
Performances of varying quality, but much to enjoy in a couple of premieres and some exhilarating Ravel. Music of solace and sensuality formed the twin peaks of this all-French programme…