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…
‘Celebrating Women Baroque Composers’: Roberta Invernizzi at Wigmore Hall
Early developments in print technology reveal much about women’s involvement in musical life and composition in the Renaissance and early Baroque. The earliest extant published music by a woman is…
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…
Opera on Video Five Year Anniversary – A success story
The website operaonvideo.com was founded in September 2018 with the objective of documenting ALL full opera performances ever recorded, broadcast or streamed on video. It went live a few months…
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…
Nabucco at the Arena di Verona
The Arena di Verona has just hosted its 100th year of summer opera. Long ago the Arena had places for 30,000 Romans, now, with one-third of the monumental structure as an…
Maltworms and Milkmaids: a new recording of Warlock’s orchestral music and songs
During his tragically short life, Peter Warlock – the pen name used by Philip Heseltine (1894-1930) – composed around 119 solo songs, 23 choral works (some unaccompanied and others with…
Simon Rattle’s Prom of Poulenc and Mahler proved both unforgettable and deeply personal
Farewell. This was an essential part of Sir Simon Rattle’s second Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. It was a final farewell to his tenure at the London Symphony Orchestra…
La ciociara at Wexford Festival Opera: in conversation with conductor Francesco Cilluffo
Women & War is the theme uniting the works being performed at the 72nd Wexford Festival Opera next month. The three main productions in the Irish National Opera House each…