In addition to the “Big Three” Main Stage offerings in the Des Moines Metro Opera summer season, we were also indeed fortunate to experience their deeply affecting Second Stage production…
Category: Reviews
Rameau’s Platée in Indianola
A champagne cork pops at the onstage bar under a spate of piss-elegant chandeliers, the music strikes up, and Des Moines Metro Opera’s fizzy, heady Platée is off to the…
The Queen of Spades, a Winning Hand
After the long months when card playing gamblers were relegated to video poker in isolation, Des Moines Metro Opera has triumphantly bolted back to the gaming table with a riveting…
Sweeney A Palpable Hit, So Help Me Todd
The estimable American festival, Des Moines Metro Opera, ventured confidently into Stephen Sondheim territory with an enthralling new production of Sweeney Todd. The first great asset in its favor is…
Seven Ages: a magical and consoling journey through life’s hopes, fears and humility
I hate to fall back on cliché, but this really was a ‘dream-team’ recital at Middle Temple Hall, in which tenor Mark Padmore, baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Julius Drake…
Apocalypse and Combat in Aix
Pierre Audi’s 2021 Aix Festival included two small pieces that continue the Festival’s operatic exploration of the larger Mediterranean world, meanwhile connecting the Festival’s general director to his Lebanese roots.…
Nardus Williams’ debut solo recital at Wigmore Hall
A solo debut recital at Wigmore Hall is a big occasion, and soprano Nardus Williams can be forgiven for looking a little nervous as she ventured onto the platform, with…
Le nozze di Figaro at the Aix Festival
Mozart meets hysteria in this new staging of his masterpiece by Dutch metteur en scène Lotte de Beer, to the quick and just baton of conductor Thomas Hengelbrock and his Balthaser…
Russian pessimism, potently performed by countertenor Hamish McLaren
There was no musical equivalent in Russia of the outpouring of Romantic lieder which occurred in Western Europe, as, inspired by the greatest poets of the day, song after song…
The Cunning Little Vixen at Opera Holland Park
Our present condition lends us, perhaps more than ever, to think of what has led us here, how things really are now, and where the world will take us next.…