There are those productions that linger in the memory for months, even years. Then there are those that fade all too quickly from consciousness, consigned to history and best forgotten.…
A superb cast make Tim Albery’s enigmatic Mitridate at Garsington compelling
Mozart had already got three operas under his belt – as well as numerous oratorios and masses, symphonies and sonatas – when the fourteen-year-old prodigy was commissioned to compose an…
LIVE From London Summer 2023
The VOCES8 Foundation presents the tenth iteration of its acclaimed online concert series with nine concerts covering six centuries of stunning repertoire, including world premieres and celebrations of iconic anniversaries.…
A stylish, sunny Il barbiere di Siviglia at Garsington
Simon Higlett’s stylish designs handsomely set the scene for Christopher Luscombe’s new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at Garsington, transporting us to the narrow, cobbled streets of that Spanish…
A magnificent Götterdämmerung at Longborough
With two Ring cycles completed some twenty years ago and another due next year, it’s not for nothing Longborough Festival Opera is known as the Bayreuth of the Cotswolds. All…
Rigoletto opens Opera Holland Park’s 2023 season
Director Cecilia Stinton sets out her stall in no uncertain terms during the overture to her new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto at Opera Holland Park. As conductor Lee Reynolds whips…
Style, imagination & not a little daring: a new staging of Handel’s Saul at Berlin’s Komische Oper
Over the Whitsun weekend, the Komische Oper in Berlin had something of a Handel festival on with revivals of Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel’s Semele and Stefan Herheim’s production of…
The English Music Festival, Dorchester-on Thames
Warm summer sunshine, a long bank holiday weekend, four days of English music in a lovely Oxfordshire village among convivial company: what a treat. Well, the holiday exodus from the…
Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini at Deutsche Oper
Riccardo Zandonai’s reputation rests almost entirely on his 1914 opera Francesca da Rimini, a work that retains a toehold on the repertoire. A somewhat overblown romantic tragedy based on a…