Rather like the theological principle of the via negativa as a way of discoursing about the divine, it is perhaps easier to say what John Tavener’s last work, Krishna (completed…
Category: Staged Operas
Elektra in San Francisco
Richard Strauss’ 1909, second break-out opera Elektra just now was set in the same Greek antiquities museum as it had in 2017. But that’s not the big news. The first…
Impressive Singing Relieves an Austere Don Carlo from Grange Park Opera
First presented in 2016 and now revived twice at Grange Park’s West Horsley address, this Don Carlo retains all of Verdi’s dark solemnities, and with Jo Davies’ removal of the original Fontainebleau scenes,…
Il barbiere in San Francisco
It was not a ho-hum affair after all, though I had fears that it might be, given the ubiquity of Rossini’s most famous title, to the exclusion of most of…
Opéra Bastille’s La Traviata Leap Frogs into the Digital Age
With its cinematic scene changes and explosion of colour, this latest revival of Simon Stone’s Traviata reminded me of Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film version of Romeo and Juliet. If that was intended to…
Magnificent Singing and Intermittent Humour from Palais Garnier’s La Cenerentola
According to the publicity for this latest revival of La Cenerentola at Palais Garnier, first unveiled in 2017, Guillaume Gallienne sets the work in Naples and situates the characters “on the edge…
Così fan tutte at Opera Holland Park
Così fan tutte may be my favourite opera; it is certainly one of those about which I am touchiest. To have me come away from a performance not verging upon spitting…
An elusive atmosphere and subdued choreography make for an enigmatic Orlando at Longborough
Sinéad O’Neill’s production of Handel’s Orlando, a study in love-induced derangement adapted from Ariosto’s famous poetic epic, paradoxically refrains from replicating the title character’s mania in any frantic choreography and is…
Musically Excellent but Culturally Insensitive Interpretation of Handel’s Julius Caesar in Egypt at the Grange Festival
If Edward Said had written Orientalism today, then David Alden’s production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare for the Grange Festival could be cited as Exhibit A for evidence of the West’s…
Love, life and art remain to the fore in the Grange Festival’s La bohème despite stated political aims
Unlike his operatic forbear, Verdi, or his contemporary in Germany, Wagner, Puccini wasn’t interested in politics, nor are his operas motivated or driven by political issues, despite the implied politics of poverty…