Opera
Flower power
Rather than brave the boos and the first reprise of Frank Castorf’s half-hearted Ring at Bayreuth, I decided to pay…
Triumphant Tannhäuser
Seventeen years ago the Norwegian National Opera staged two cycles of the Ring in Norwich’s Theatre Royal, performances that have…
High hopes
One of the highlights of last year’s Glyndebourne Festival was the revival of Richard Jones’s Falstaff, spruced up and invigorated…
Mixed blessings
Dvorak’s The Jacobin and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, the two operas that opened this year’s Buxton Festival, are both relative…
Close encounters
London is lucky to have heard Joyce DiDonato at the height of her powers in two consecutive seasons. The American…
Virtuoso Wagner
It seems a very short time since I interviewed Richard Farnes about Opera North’s planned Ring cycle, the dramas to…
Sleazy does it
This season has already seen Manon Lescaut appear in several different operatic guises across the UK, but it was Covent…
Lacking the light touch
To suggest that the ageing Jules Massenet identified himself with the title character of his Don Quichotte is nothing new…
That’s entertainment
Operas about artists are not rare. However — perhaps for obvious reasons — those artists tend to be musicians, singers,…
Dark night of the soul
Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites is an audacious work, much more so than many others that advertise their audacity. It deals…
People and their prophets
On paper, Moses und Aron might seem intractable and abstract: a 12-tone score setting a libretto that meditates on God,…
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…
