Tag: Royal Opera House

Finding myself with an hour to kill before a performance of Robert Carsen’s new production of Aida at the Royal Opera House earlier this week, I settled down in a…

Keith Warner’s Otello is a crucible of darkness and light.  The minimalism of Warner’s conception and design seemed even more striking to me during the opening night of this second…

First unveiled in 2016, this second revival of Jan Philipp Gloger’s Così fan tutte remains self-consciously preoccupied with the question, ‘What is theatre?’  While his interview in the souvenir programme…

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, beautiful though it is, presents issues for contemporary values; hence the current rethink of the Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier production.  The Royal Opera brought in Japanese…

To describe Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila as ‘old-fashioned’ doesn’t seem controversial.  The French composer’s score harks back to the past with its allusions to Handelian fugue and Bachian chorale, betraying…

In one sense, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale hinges on a slap.  In a fit of pique, Norina lashes out at the eponymous wealthy, stubborn old man whom she’s duped, when he…

Considering the first night of David Alden’s (then) new production of Lohengrin in 2018, I found ‘a conceptual weakness at … [its] heart. I suspect it can be remedied: if…

Another revival of Richard Eyre’s seemingly timeless production of La traviata (first unveiled in 1994) has returned to the Royal Opera House.  It provides a further opportunity to hear yet…