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…
Category: Reviews
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…
Chornobyldorf: An Archaeological Opera in Seven Novels
For two weeks in January each year, the Prototype Festival brings small-scale and experimental musical theater to New York. The focus is on new works that draw not so much…
Delius: A Mass of Life
‘The status attained by Frederick Delius as a composer ensures for every new work from his pen the respectful attention of all classes of musicians. In the case of a…
Dreams, Desires, Desolation: English Song
In Dreams, Desires, Desolation, baritone Trevor Alexander and pianist Peter Crockford present a miscellany of English song. There are both art songs – some well-known, others less familiar – and…
‘Love, viewed from the dark side’: Christof Loy’s production of Strauss’s Elektra at the Royal Opera House
Skimming through some of the critical literature on the myth of Electra – who, following the murder of her father, the Mycenaean King Agamemnon, at the hands of her mother…
Homelands: songs of exile, alienation and escape
Homelands is the title of this programme, curated by pianist and writer Aron Goldin and released by Rubicon last October. However, in the context of creative artists’ representation of ‘home’,…