This recital looked somewhat ‘epic’ on the page and fulfilled its promise in performance, presenting three major chamber works, each encompassing expressive heights, and nadirs, and unified by the nocturnal…
Category: Performances
Mattila and Grigorian excel in Claus Guth’s new production of Jenůfa at Covent Garden
When Gabriela Preissová’s play, Její pastorkyňa (Her Stepdaughter), was produced for the first time, on 9th November 1890 at the National Theatre in Prague, it provoked a fierce debate between the advocates…
Edward Gardner conducts a magnificent The Midsummer Marriage to open his first season at the LPO
The last time I heard Michael Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage was when I reviewed Graham Vick’s 1996 Covent Garden production. Visually spectacular – that vast Stockhausen-like globe, split open temple…
Gluck’s Paris and Helen: Bampton Classical Opera at St John’s Smith Square
Greek heroes are not unaccustomed to squaring up to the whims of gods and fortune, but in bringing Christoph Willibald Gluck’s account of the elopement of Paris, son of King…
Profound questions from Ondřej Adámek and the LSO, at the Barbican
An obvious risk, and frustration, in asking infinitely profound questions is that one knows they cannot be answered. The title of Ondřej Adámek’s orchestral song-cycle, Where Are You?, poses one such…
Oliver Mears’ Rigoletto at Covent Garden: a superb drama of darkness and light
It was an absolute delight to be back at the Royal Opera House for the opening night of the 2021-22 season, but also somewhat disorientating. A full auditorium; convivial operagoers…
A wonderful recital of French song from Sabine Devieilhe and Alexandre Tharaud at Wigmore Hall
When I heard the French soprano Sabine Devieilhe make her solo debut at Wigmore Hall in May 2018, the only quibble I had with her charming programme, Les Salons de…
Rising Stars Concert, Lyric Opera of Chicago, 2021
On a recent Sunday evening at Millennium Park Lyric Opera of Chicago presented its annual concert to introduce the new season. During his initial remarks welcoming audience members to Sunday…
Arcangelo perform Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the BBC Proms
When Arcangelo performed Handel’s Theodora on the penultimate evening of the 2018 Proms season, I wondered whether a small period-instrument ensemble and singers could surmount the challenges posed by the…
Amy Beach’s Cabildo at Wilton’s Music Hall: a Creole Beggar’s Opera
Pierre Lafitte (1770-1821) is a figure of swashbuckling legend. The French-born New Orleans merchant mariner-cum-pirate and his brother Jean ran an illicit trading network in defiance of the American, Spanish…