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…
Category: Performances
The Samling Institute 25th Anniversary Showcase at Wigmore Hall
Since its foundation in 1996, The Samling Institute for Young Artists has supported the careers of some 350 singers and musicians. Its 25th birthday was celebrated at Wigmore Hall by…
Transfigured Strauss and breathtaking Wagner: Miah Persson sings Vier letze Lieder and Rouvali conducts The Ring Without Words
It’s not often that I review a concert back to front, but this Philharmonia pairing of Strauss and Wagner is in part better understood that way. Both composers used huge…
Dramas of darkness and light: a stunning Bluebeard and sunny Haydn from the LPO and Gardner
In 1911, 30-year-old Béla Bartók began work on an instructive edition of seventeen of Haydn’s Piano Sonatas. Between February and September that year, he also composed his first and only…
Le nozze di Figaro: Hampstead Garden Opera
HGO (formerly Hampstead Garden Opera) has been one of the musical heroes of the pandemic. Last year, it brought opera back to London with Holst’s Savītri; this year, it was…
Sharp slaps and pungent pyrotechnics: Glyndebourne’s Don Pasquale at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury
There was pungent, post-explosion smoke in the Marlowe Theatre during the performance of Glyndebourne’s touring production of Don Pasquale, and it wasn’t all the result of the pyrotechnics with which…
A rake revived: Glyndebourne Tour at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury
John Cox and David Hockney’s Glyndebourne production of The Rake’s Progress has proved one of the Festival’s most enduring successes, revived frequently in the Sussex theatre and in international houses…
A compelling Robert Devereux from Chelsea Opera Group at Cadogan Hall
In June 2019, the Australian soprano Helena Dix stepped into the royal shoes of Elizabeth I, replacing soprano Ina Schlingensiepen at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe in the third and final…
The Power of Music: healing, communion and time – a recital with Joyce DiDonato and Craig Terry
Joyce DiDonato spoke very personally – but very universally – about what this recital meant, her first in London since the pandemic began. Music was about healing, but it was…
Vibrant visuals and fancy footwork: Cal McCrystal’s HMS Pinafore at English National Opera
The Modern Major-General may dismiss its whistled airs as “infernal nonsense”, but the songs of HMS Pinafore have lost none of their appeal during the near 150 years since Gilbert…