The one by Francesco Cilea. There are several others by forgotten composers. This one sits uneasily in the verismo category given its hyper contrived plot and its historical setting. Leading…
Category: Reviews
Giulio Cesare in Paris
This Laurent Pelly production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare is wily indeed, enriching Handel’s estimation of antiquity’s most famous female with supreme wit. Were it pure Baroque opera seria these current…
Beatrice di Tenda in Paris
Bellini’s second to last opera, Beatrice di Tenda, was not a success at its 1833 Venice premiere, though subsequent performances are said to have overcome the opera’s macabre horrors through…
Eugene Onegin returns to the New National Theatre Tokyo
First unveiled in 2019 (reviewed by David Chandler here: The New Season at the New National Theatre, Tokyo – Opera Today), this revival of Dmitry Bertman’s Eugene Onegin – his…
Tosca returns to the Royal Opera House
For a successful theatre production to work well, Puccini once asserted, there were three fixed laws. He claimed these should be a necessity ‘to interest, to surprise, to move’. This…
Il Pomo d’Oro bring Purcell and Carissimi to the Barbican
It was clear which ‘queen’ the capacity audience at the Barbican had come to see, and it wasn’t the tragic Queen of Carthage whose downfall and death are brought about…
The Handmaid’s Tale returns to English National Opera
Nearly upended by a proposed strike from ENO musicians, which was averted for the opening night, the revival of this production of Poul Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale, first unveiled in…
Die Frau ohne Schatten in Toulouse
The fifth opera in the Richard Strauss canon — the one that is truly gigantic — staged just now at Toulouse’s acoustically famed 1150 seat Theatre du Capitole in the…
Powerful performances from The English Concert at the Wigmore Hall
Works written for performance in Hanover, Rome and London featured in this all-Handel programme given by the English Concert. The evening’s second half was taken up by Dixit Dominus, dating…
The Carver Choirbook is ‘unwrapped’ by The Sixteen at Kings Place
Kings Place’s annual celebration of a particular ‘theme’ has entered its sixteenth year, and in 2024 it is the turn of Scotland to be ‘unwrapped’. The year-long series will explore…