Michael Tippett’s opera King Priam premiered as part of the
same arts festival in Coventry for which Britten’s War Requiem was
written and in fact the two works have something in common, dealing with the
issues of war and its consequences.
Category: Performances
Tippett’s King Priam
Die Fledermaus in Chicago
In Lyric Opera of Chicago’s recent performances of Johann Strauss’s
Die Fledermaus several debuts are notable to both American and Chicago
audiences.
Rigoletto, ENO
One wonders if it wasn’t rather risky of ENO to stage a new version of Rigoletto when Jonathan Miller’s ‘mafioso’ production, which served the company so well for a quarter of a century, is still fresh in opera-goers’ minds and hearts?
John Dowland: In Darkness
Its soothing wooden walls gently bathed in aquamarine light, the very modern Hall at King’s Place made a surprisingly fitting venue for a musical journey to the intimate Elizabethan chamber.
Lucia di Lammermoor in Marseille
A handsome new production, beautifully staged in Marseille’s fine old opera house cried out for a cast to make the opera bel canto.
Theodora at the Barbican
Harry Bicket and the English Concert brought Handel’s wonderful late oratorio Theodora to the Barbican on Saturday 8 February 2014 after a Tour in America and now taking in Birmingham, London and Paris.
The Tender Land in Lyon
It is not often that a Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land comes along with resources like those of the OpÈra de Lyon, one of Europe’s finest. So carpe diem!
Don Giovanni, Royal Opera
Kasper Holten’s new production of Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera
House risks laying the house’s Director of Opera open to charges of
antiquated mores and misogyny: for he seems to suggest that the women are just
as bad, if not worse, than their seducer — and that a soulful man who seeks
genuine love is likely to find his ‘ideal beloved’ forever out of reach.
Pagliacci Opens San Diego Opera’s 2014 Season
On January 28, San Diego Opera presented Pagliacci as the opening production of the 2014 season. Often staged along with another opera, such as Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, this Pagliacci faced the opera world alone.
Coeur de Chien aka A Dog’s Life in Lyon
If satire is your thing you will not want to miss this opera about human testicles grafted onto a dog.