Category: Performances

Die Entf¸hrung aus dem Serail is too light to be a grand opera, but it makes rather grander demands of its singers than operetta could possibly bear.

English National Opera’s production of Harrison Birtwistle’s ‘Punch and Judy’ is the company’s second collaboration with the Young Vic Theatre — following the premiere of Neuwirth’s ‘Lost Highway’ a few weeks earlier — and remarkably, also the second London production of this early Birtwistle work within a month, the previous one having been at the Linbury Studio Theatre, a collaboration between Music Theatre Wales and the Royal Opera.

Over the years, one tried and true method of packing audiences in to the concerts of Robert Bassís Collegiate Chorale has been to present concert opera with impressive soloists.

Martha Graham used to say, “In order for there to be dance, there must be something that needs to be danced.”

When the Met presented La Fille du RÈgiment for Lily Pons during World War II, she sought permission to wave the Cross of Lorraine, symbol of Charles de Gaulleís Free French, during the Salut ‡ la France in Act II.

Why does one so seldom encounter Dvo?·kís Rusalka on stage?

Satyagraha is an odd duck to encounter if you are seeking a traditional opera-going experience or anything like it.

Victor DeRenzi is a man of convictions ó and of courage. Given his commitment to tradition, you might call DeRenzi, artistic director of Sarasota Opera since 1982, conservative.

With what might (if one were risking facetiousness) be termed a ìfalse-setî of four countertenors in the cast, this was always going to be an intriguing production of Handelís Giulio Cesare for aficionados of a voice type which has revolutionised the perception (and popularity) of baroque opera over the past 15 years.