If you want an intellectual challenge, then power your way through the sonnets of John Donne, the leading exemplar of the school of Metaphysical Poets, as I and many other…
Category: Performances
Idomeneo in San Francisco
To make a long story short, Ilia loves Idamande but can’t admit it. Elektra loves Idamante and admits it. Idomeneo loves his son Idamante but promised Neptune that he would…
La bohème in San Francisco [2025]
La bohème has played in forty-eight of San Francisco Opera’s 102 seasons. In fact, back in 1923 it was the inaugural piece of this grand old American opera company. Here’s…
Gothic horror meets Sigmund Freud in Saint-Saëns’s The Silver Bell at Winchester’s Theatre Royal
Of Camille Saint-Saëns’s thirteen operas, only Samson and Dalila remains a regular part of the repertory. So, the enterprising New Sussex Opera must be congratulated on presenting the UK premiere…
Enchantresses: Sandrine Piau at Wigmore Hall
Sandrine Piau’s recent Alpha disc (also Enchantresses) was mostly re-enacted in front of us (with a signing afterwards) for this remarkable concert at Wigmore Hall. The instrumental group used was…
Der Ring des Nibelungen at Theater Basel
Richard Wagner’s epic artistic extravaganza, Der Ring des Nibelungen, is a bucket list item for some and an obsession for others aching for immersion into its mix of myth and reality, while…
Handel’s Saul at Glyndebourne
I found myself listening at home to Saul a few months ago (Charles Mackerras’s outstanding Leeds Festival recording with Donald McIntyre, James Bowman, Margaret Price, et al.). It made for…
A richly imagined and musically compelling Simon Boccanegra from Grange Park Opera
The Viennese critic Edward Hanslick once compared Brahms’ Fourth Symphony to “a dark well”, and declared “the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back”. Such…
Memorable singing and vivid orchestral playing enliven Grange Festival’s Traviata
Grange Festival’s new production of Verdi’s tragedy brings magnificent singing and much superb playing from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Richard Farnes who makes his house debut. Director Maxine Braham,…
A Captivating Il barbiere di Siviglia at the New National Theatre Tokyo
Josef E. Köpplinger’s 2005 production of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia celebrated its fifth revival in Tokyo this year. At the matinee on June 1st, the NNTT was filled with…