Opera
Loss of heart
In all its minute details, Der Rosenkavalier is rooted in a painstakingly stylised version of Rococo Vienna that, paradoxically, is…
Northern light
Purists might have winced at Opera North’s advertisement for its latest revival of La Bohème. ‘If you see one musical…
Oedipus wrecks
I had high hopes for Julian Anderson’s first opera, Thebans. Premièred at the Coliseum last Saturday, it promised to mark…
Chorus of approval
Within the space of a few weeks we have had the rare chance of seeing the two great torsos of…
Just say noh
One of the proudest boasts to come from Britten HQ in Aldeburgh during the composer’s anniversary last year was that…
Gleeful romp
There’s a great deal to disapprove of in Gounod’s Faust. It breaks down a pillar of western literature and whisks…
Going places
It’s been a spring tradition for several years now for English National Opera to present small-scale productions in various venues…
Character differences
I remain puzzled that, so far as I know, no daily or weekly paper carries reviews of the New York…
Preparatory studies
Opera seems almost always to have been acutely concerned with its own future. These days this is most often manifested…
Dream team
If ever an opera was weighed down by its creators’ joint ambition, it is Die Frau ohne Schatten. Richard Strauss…
Moral vacuum
Opera’s grim fascination with ‘fallen women’ — as Welsh National Opera has called its latest mini-season — lies largely in…
Musical feasts
I wasn’t going to write about Handel’s Rodelinda, wasn’t even intending to go, but thanks to the kindness of the…
Austerity measures
The difference between lovable, likable and admirable is perhaps more significant in the operatic world than in other artistic spheres…
Dazzled but confused
So it’s farewell to the fedoras and adieu to the jukebox. After 32 years of service, Jonathan Miller’s Little Italy…
Animal appetite
Last seen clambering over the MDF wheelchair ramps of Laurent Pelly’s Royal Opera House production of Jules Massenet’s opéra comique,…
What’s it all about?
Every time there’s a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni I have to ask the same question: why is this…
The voices of Firestone
Anyone who frequents the internet will have come across YouTube and soon learned that what may have been planned as…
German double
Yet more performances of Elektra, Richard Strauss’s setting of Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s ramped-up, neurosis-riddled 1903 reworking of Sophocles, are unlikely…
The genius of Gluck
This is the first of my more-or-less monthly columns, the idea of which is to report on operatic events other…
The year in opera
I’ve been hoping that in this, the last of my weekly columns on opera, I would be able to strike…
Underpowered Wagner
Debussy’s description of the music of Parsifal as being ‘lit up from behind’ is famous; less so is Wagner’s own…
Who are they?
There aren’t many operas from which you can extract a single act and make a concert of it, in fact…
Great Britten
Of this year’s three musical birthday boys, Wagner has fared, in England, surprisingly well, Verdi inexplicably badly, and Britten, as…
Weaving wonder
One loom, six metres in length, currently dominates the great, light-filled weaving hall of Edinburgh’s renowned tapestry workshop, Dovecot Studios.…
Baroque brilliance
Visits by English Touring Opera are always to be looked forward to, but this autumn it has surpassed itself with…
