Opera
You could have built a tent city from all the red chinos: Aci by the River reviewed
The Thames cruise for which Handel composed his Water Music in 1717 famously went on until around 4 a.m. The…
Juicy solution to the Purcell problem: Opera North’s Masque of Might reviewed
Another week, another attempt to solve the Purcell problem. There’s a problem? Well, yes, if you consider that a composer…
Ebullience and majesty: Opera North’s Falstaff reviewed
Opera North has launched a ‘Green Season’, which means (among other things) that the sets and costumes for its new…
ENO’s Peter Grimes shows a major international company operating at full artistic power
In David Alden’s production of Peter Grimes, the mob assembles before the music has even started – silhouetted at the…
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…
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…
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;…
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…
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…
Dramatically powerful and sonically beguiling: Innocence, at the Royal Opera House, reviewed
Plus: a striking production of an operatic dud at ENO
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…