Wagner rewilded: Das Rheingold, at the Royal Opera House, reviewed
In Northern Ireland Opera’s new Tosca, the curtain rises on a big concrete dish from which a pair of eyes…
A euphoric meat-and-two-veg programme: Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/Paavo Jarvi, at the Proms, reviewed
We used to call it a ‘meat and two veg’ programme, back in my concert planning days: the reliable set…
Doesn’t get better than this: The Threepenny Opera, at Edinburgh International Festival, reviewed
It’s the Edinburgh International Festival, and Barrie’s back in town. Once, Edinburgh was pretty much the only place that you…
Fast cars, minimalist design and en suite bathrooms: the real Rachmaninoff
Fast cars, minimalist design and en suite bathrooms: Richard Bratby visits the composer’s starkly modern Swiss home
Imagine a school concert hosted by Bela Lugosi: Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer, at the Proms, reviewed
‘Audience Choice’ was the promise at the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s Sunday matinee Prom, and come on – who could resist…
An absolute romp framed by dutiful tut-tutting: Semele at Glyndebourne reviewed
If directors will insist on staging Handel oratorios as if they’re operas, it makes sense to pick Semele, which is…
The future of opera – I hope: WNO’s Candide reviewed
Bernstein’s Candide is the operetta that ought to work, but never quite does. Voltaire’s featherlight cakewalk through human misery, set…
Was Vera Brittain really this insufferable? Buxton Festival’s The Land of Might-Have-Been reviewed
‘Ring out your bells for me, ivory keys! Weave out your spell for me, orchestra please!’ It’s lush stuff, the…
Featherweight fun: La Cenerentola, at Nevill Holt Opera, reviewed
‘Goodness Triumphant’ is the subtitle of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, and you’d better believe he delivers. It’s the sweetest thing imaginable;…
Why the Chester Mystery Plays are more popular than ever
The Chester Mystery Plays date back to the 13th century – but are more popular now than ever, finds Richard Bratby
Taut as a drumskin: Dialogues des Carmélites, at Glyndebourne, reviewed
The three Just Stop Oil protestors were sitting in the stalls, somewhere near the middle of the front row. Someone…
To die for: Grange Park Opera’s Tristan & Isolde reviewed
There are a lot of corpses on stage at the end of Charles Edwards’s production of Tristan & Isolde for…
The final scenes are a knockout: Glyndebourne’s Don Giovanni reviewed
Are you supposed to laugh at the end of Don Giovanni? Audiences often do, and they did at the end…
Florid flummery: ETO’s Il viaggio a Reims reviewed
Lightning sometimes strikes twice. English Touring Opera hit topical gold last spring when, wholly by coincidence, they found themselves touring…
WNO sinks an unsinkable opera: The Magic Flute, at Birmingham Hippodrome, reviewed
As stage directions go, the The Magic Flute opens with a zinger. ‘Tamino enters from the right wearing a splendid…
Upstart Crow without the jokes: RSC’s Hamnet, at the Swan Theatre, reviewed
The Swan Theatre has reopened after an overhaul and praise god: they’ve replaced the seats. The Swan is a likeable…
Dramatically powerful and sonically beguiling: Innocence, at the Royal Opera House, reviewed
Plus: a striking production of an operatic dud at ENO
The last unashamedly happy masterpiece: Haydn’s The Creation, at Ulster Hall, reviewed
Haydn’s The Creation is Paradise Lost without the Lost. True, the words aren’t exactly up there: translated into German by…
An old production that’s aged better than most: Royal Opera’s Turandot reviewed
Since its première in 1984, Andrei Serban’s production of Puccini’s Turandot has been revived 15 times at Covent Garden, not…
The opera’s a masterpiece but the production doesn’t quite come off: ENO’s The Dead City reviewed
English National Opera has arrived at the Dead City, and who, before Christmas, would have given odds that this new…
If you’re anywhere near Edinburgh, get a ticket: Scottish Opera’s Il trittico reviewed
It does no harm, once in a while, to assume that the creators of an opera actually know what they’re…
Electrifying: London Handel Festival’s In the Realms of Sorrow, at Stone Nest, reviewed
Hector Berlioz dismissed Handel as ‘that tub of pork and beer’ but it wasn’t always like that. Picture a younger,…
Dated and wasteful: Rusalka, at the Royal Opera House, reviewed
Careful what you wish for. There can be no definitive way to stage an opera, and it’s the critic’s duty…
