Asmik Grigorian in Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera

Madama Butterfly is firmly ensconced among the top-ten “most performed” operas worldwide and the Met’s current production is nearly two decades old. Yet, over the past few weeks, the Met…

Rapturous reception of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta in Poole

“Who’d have thought it could happen in Poole” voiced one overawed audience member.  He was not referring to the standing ovation, although that in itself was exceptional, but the outstanding…

Celebrating the Schoenberg Sesquicentennial at Carnegie Hall

Over the past generation, the polymathic conductor Leon Botstein has done much to promote large and obscure late-Romantic works. A recent sold-out performance of Arnold Schonberg’s Gurre-Lieder at Carnegie Hall…

Jurowski’s London Philharmonic Ring comes to a magnificent end with Götterdämmerung

Life can sometimes imitate art and in the case of this concert performance of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung that has certainly been so. Originally scheduled for 2021, at the end of Vladimir…

Mixed Performances of Mendelssohn from the OAE

Judging by a revelatory all-Mendelssohn concert recently heard at the Anvil, Basingstoke with Sir András Schiff and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, I had every reason to assume…

Teddy bears and flower arrangements: Larmes de Couteau and Full Moon in March at ROH’s Linbury Theatre

An evening of bracing 20th-century rules-out-the-window music-drama is always a good thing now and again, and the current production of a double bill – Bohuslav Martinů’s Larmes de Couteau and…

Poulenc’s Gloria in an all-French programme with the BBCSO at the Barbican

It is, I think, worth quoting the first paragraph of the booklet notes for the section on Francis Poulenc’s Gloria, the second work on this BBC Symphony Orchestra concert: ‘I…

Jonas Kaufmann in Aida at the Bayerische Staatsoper

Aida, an opera that requires at least five fine Verdi voices, has fallen on hard times. Still, the cast announced for last Saturday’s performance at the Bayerische Staatsoper, headed by…

London Handel Festival International Singing Competition Final

With an internationally renowned jury, the London Handel Festival International Singing Competition carries a fair amount of clout. Jurors were: David Gowland (chairman, Artistic Director of the Jette Parker Scheme…

A sensational Nadine Sierra in Lucia di Lammermoor at the ROH

The periodic frustration one might feel with Katie Mitchell’s split stage concept for Donizetti’s romantic tragedy is a small price to pay for some stupendous singing. First unveiled in 2016,…