The Academy of Ancient Music’s New Worlds series stopped off in South America this week, by way of Cambridge and London, when they were joined by VOCES8 to explore the…
Category: Reviews
A patriarchy-punching Magic Flute directed by Polly Graham at the Royal College of Music
At first glance, Polly Graham’s decision to set Mozart’s The Magic Flute in a secondary school seems an inspired one. After all, in Schikaneder’s journey from darkness to light the…
Cosi fan tutte in San Francisco
Cosi fan tutte (1790), the little sister of the Mozart Da Ponte trilogy, was mounted last night in the same set used by its older brother The Marriage of Figaro…
ENO’s Valkyrie fails to catch fire: an under-ambitious start to Richard Jones’s Ring Cycle
Very little exists in a visual way of Wieland Wagner’s Bayreuth Die Walküre from the mid-to-late 1960s. What does, largely requires us to use our imagination. It is something which…
Simon Keenlyside and Anna Pirozzi: chilling psychopaths in Covent Garden’s impressive revival of Macbeth
Macbeth is the first great fusion of music and drama in Verdi’s operas. It needs a great production, however, to bring those elements together and this is largely what Phyllida…
In the Bleak Midwinter: Christmas Carols from King’s
For those who like a physical recording of a world-renowned Christmas broadcast, this recent disc from the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge will provide a timely reminder of exceptional circumstances.…
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Met
Last week I attended the recent MET revival of Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg alone. My wife declined to join me, insisting that she could not bear hearing endless…
Passion: operatic mix ‘n’ match from Véronique Gens
Passion is an imaginary opera built around the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully, and three of his pupils and contemporaries. It’s the result of discussions between Baroque specialist Véronique Gens and…