David Alden may have dragged George Crabbe’s eighteenth-century Suffolk Borough into the twentieth century, updating Britten’s Peter Grimes to the time of its composition and emphasising post-war parochialism and hypocrisy,…
Category: Staged Operas
Die Frau ohne Schatten at Neuköllner Oper
One often hears that Berlin has three opera houses. In fact, it has many more. Among the most engaging is the Neuköllner Oper. Situated in a funky Berlin neighborhood, it…
Il trovatore in San Francisco
Enrico Caruso said that Trovatore is easy — you just need the four greatest singers in the world. Let us not argue about who these singers may be. Do let…
Eslon Hindundu’s Chief Hijangua in Berlin
Eslon Hindundu’s new opera Chief Hijangua, the first ever composed by a Namibian, premiered in Windhoek last fall. Last weekend, I attended the third performance of its European premiere at…
‘Grand passions and great singing’: Christof Loy’s La forza del destino returns to Covent Garden
This was an evening of big voices and grand theatrical vision. When Christof Loy’s production of Verdi’s La forza del destino was first seen at the Royal Opera House, in…
King Stakh’s Wild Hunt: ambitious, provocative, probing music theatre from Belarus Free Theatre
Belarus Free Theatre’s world premiere production at the Barbican Theatre of King Stakh’s Wild Hunt is stunning, sometimes bewildering and absolutely immersing: a sort of dramatic cross-breeding of the worlds…
At the Venice Fair: Bampton Classical Opera bring a Salieri premiere to St John’s Smith Square
Opera-in-the-garden can be rather a hit-and-miss affair, given the vagaries of an English summer. One night the sky is blue, the sun is benevolently warm, the breeze brushes gently and…
Strikingly impressive Das Rheingold from the Royal Opera House
One might argue with Covent Garden’s pre-publicity claim that this Rheingold is‘a bold new imagining’, but this first collaboration between director Barrie Kosky and conductor Anthony Pappano brings a wonderfully…
FIFOE in Entrecasteaux
That’s Festival International Film d’Opéra d’Entrecasteaux (a tiny village in Provence). The two films of this inaugural year were Francesco Rosi’s 1984 Carmen and Luigi Comencini’s 1988 La boheme (lead photo). The surprisingly…
555: Verlaine en prison: a tender and troubled portrait of poetic profundity at the Arcola Theatre
‘The long sobs of the violins of autumn wound my heart with a monotonous languor.’ The first lines of Paul Verlaine’s ‘Chanson d’automne’ exemplify the poignant melancholy of Verlaine’s poetry…