Opera

Devastating: WNO’s Peter Grimes reviewed

19 April 2025 9:00 am

Britten’s Peter Grimes turns 80 this June, and it’s still hard to credit it. The whole phenomenon, that is –…

Spreads emotions like jam: Festen, at the Royal Opera House, reviewed

1 March 2025 9:00 am

Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera Festen opened at Covent Garden earlier this month, and reader, I messed up. I broke my…

Regents Opera’s Ring is a formidable achievement

22 February 2025 9:00 am

I saw the world end in a Bethnal Green leisure centre. Regents Opera’s Ring cycle, which began in 2022 in…

A committed performance of Lerner and Weill’s flop: Opera North’s Love Life reviewed

25 January 2025 9:00 am

Once upon a time on Broadway, Igor Stravinsky composed a ballet for Billy Rose’s revue Seven Lively Arts. After the…

Meet the king of comic opera

14 December 2024 9:00 am

John Savournin has been busy. That comes with the territory for a classical singer – things often get a little…

A keeper: ENO’s new The Elixir of Love reviewed

30 November 2024 9:00 am

There was some light booing on the first night of English National Opera’s The Elixir of Love, but it was…

Fails to ignite: Royal Opera’s Tales of Hoffmann reviewed

16 November 2024 9:00 am

I couldn’t love anyone who didn’t love Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann. Everything – everything – is stacked against this…

One beauty – one turkey: Wexford Festival Opera reviewed

9 November 2024 9:00 am

‘Theatre within Theatre’ was the theme of the 2024 Wexford Festival and with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s The Critic, that’s…

You’re unlikely to see a better case made for this Bernstein double bill

19 October 2024 9:00 am

It’s rare nowadays to see a new opera production that’s set in the period that the composer and librettist intended,…

Committed performances – but who was the granny? Northern Ireland Opera’s Eugene Onegin reviewed

28 September 2024 9:00 am

It’s a critic’s job to pick holes in the dafter aspects of opera productions, but in truth audiences are usually…

Aggressively jaded: Edinburgh’s Marriage of Figaro reviewed

31 August 2024 9:00 am

‘Boo!’ came a voice from the stalls. ‘Boo. Outrage!’ It was hard not to feel a pang of admiration. British…

Britain’s youngest summer opera festival is seriously impressive

24 August 2024 9:00 am

Waterperry is one of the UK’s youngest summer opera festivals: it started up in 2018, at the northern limit of…

In defence of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Grand Duke

17 August 2024 9:00 am

Artistic partnerships are elusive things. The best – where two creative personalities somehow inspire or goad each other to do…

A major operatic rediscovery: Birmingham Opera Company’s New Year reviewed

20 July 2024 9:00 am

This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I live before his time. One of the most thrilling aspects of the Tippett…

Sparky and often hilarious: Garsington’s Un giorno di regno reviewed

13 July 2024 9:00 am

Hang out with both trainspotters and opera buffs and you’ll soon notice that opera buffs are by far the more…

An ensemble achievement that dances and sparkles: Glyndebourne’s Giulio Cesare reviewed

6 July 2024 9:00 am

A classic opera production ages like wine. When David McVicar’s staging of Handel’s Giulio Cesare first opened at Glyndebourne in…

‘Zings off the stage’: My Fair Lady, at Leeds Playhouse, reviewed

29 June 2024 9:00 am

If you want to kill a musical, make it into a movie. Cats, Phantom of the Opera, South Pacific… cinema…

A sugar rush for the eyes: Glyndebourne’s The Merry Widow reviewed

22 June 2024 9:00 am

In 1905, shortly before the world première of The Merry Widow, the Viennese theatre manager Wilhelm Karczag got cold feet…

Shiny, raunchy, heartless spectacular: Platée, at Garsington, reviewed

8 June 2024 9:00 am

Fast times on Mount Olympus. Jupiter has been shagging around again and now his wife Juno has bailed on their…

You could have built a tent city from all the red chinos: Aci by the River reviewed

27 April 2024 9:00 am

The Thames cruise for which Handel composed his Water Music in 1717 famously went on until around 4 a.m. The…