With the familial knots of the guest list for Charles III’s coronation still to be unravelled and the UK still stretching itself on the Brexit-rack, Il viaggio a Reims, Rossini’s…
Category: Reviews
Tristan et Isolde in Toulouse
Well beyond all Tristan basics the Opéra de Toulouse boasted two ravishing singers and an electrifying conductor in this revival of its excellent 2007 Nicolas Joël production. Austrian tenor Nikolai…
London Handel Festival: In the Realms of Sorrow at Stone Nest
Charcoaled-eyes and glitter-tears. Swirling coils of murky smoke. Twilight-zone lighting. Sensuousness verging on violence. Certainly not what Handel’s wealthy Roman patrons would have experienced when the young composer presented private…
Rusalka at the Royal Opera House
A strange evening: I very much enjoyed this new Rusalka, though found myself slightly haunted by the suspicion I did so more than I should have done. Musically magnificent yet…
Carmen in Marseille
A proven production of real interest, beautifully conducted with an excellent cast just now at the Opéra de Marseille. This Jean-Louis Grinda production originated at the Opera de Toulouse in…
English Touring Opera: Giulio Cesare at the Hackney Empire
English Touring Opera opened its Spring 2023 season with a revival of James Conway’s fine 2017 production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare. The production was revived in 2020, but that run…
Das Rheingold at English National Opera
Like the Biblical cosmos, that of the Ring offers more than one creation myth, perhaps not entirely consistent with one another. Therein lies the dramatic rub. Richard Jones’s new production…
Cilea’s Gloria in Sardinia
Beyond its emerald waters, white sands and pecorino cheese, Sardinia is an opera destination! Just now it was Francesco Cilea’s fifth and last opera, Gloria, at the Teatro Lirico di…
Sacroprofano: Sacred & Secular Vivaldi from Tim Mead and Arcangelo
On the concert platform, operatic stage and recording studio, Tim Mead has established himself as one of Britain’s foremost countertenors. This recent issue from Alpha is his first solo album…
Szymanowski’s Symphony No.3, The Song of the Night, in a mixed evening at the Barbican
This was an odd concert – supposedly with a Polish link, in that its bookends were two symphonies from that country, and two symphonies at that which were born out…