Opera
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…
Flawed Flute
A new production of The Magic Flute is something to look forward to, if with apprehension. How many aspects of…
Third time lucky
When Keith Warner’s production of Berg’s Wozzeck was first produced at the Royal Opera, nine years ago, it made me…
Disturbed by Britten
This week chanced to give me a fascinating study in contrasts and comparisons: Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek at the Linbury Studio,…
Vocal heroes
Verdi’s Les vêpres siciliennes is his least performed mature opera, even in its more familiar version as I vespri siciliani.…
Slav flavour
This year’s live relays of New York Met performances have a markedly Slav flavour, with Shostakovich’s rare The Nose next…
Divine comedy
Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus (but if it’s given in English, why not The Bat? Does that somehow sound too unglamorous?)…
Sensational Strauss
It’s been a sensational week for opera in London, with a sensationally good performance of Strauss’s Elektra at the Royal…
Messing around with Berg
Why would anyone want to adapt Berg’s Lulu, a masterpiece even if a problematic one? According to John Fulljames, who…
Beyond redemption
It’s a cynical start to the Royal Opera’s season to have this 1984 production of Puccini’s last opera Turandot. Not…
Reincarnations of Wagner
The many opera performances at the Proms this year have all been so successful, especially the Wagner series, that I…
On the beach
With a tidal wave of Peter Grimeses about to engulf us — performances in London, Birmingham and Leeds in September…
Elder’s evening
The Proms season of Wagner operas — pity they didn’t do them all; Die Meistersinger would have been specially welcome,…
Exuberant genius
Whenever Michael Tippett’s first opera, The Midsummer Marriage, is revived, there is a chorus of voices, including mine, complaining that…
Wagner’s dream
It would be interesting to know why Tristan und Isolde was placed in the Proms programme in between Siegfried and…
A Ring for eternity
The first complete performance of Wagner’s Ring cycle at the Proms is already, less than a week after its conclusion,…
Intimate and intense
What could be more delightful than going to Gyndebourne with someone who has never been before, arriving in time for…
Strauss’s swansong
Richard Strauss’s operatic swansong Capriccio made an elegant and untaxing conclusion to the Royal Opera’s season. It was done in…
Taking up the challenge
There are no two ways about it: Wagner’s Ring cycle, the biggest challenge that any opera company can face, has…
Verdi virtues
I’m not the first person to remark that Verdi is getting oddly little attention in this his bicentenary year, especially…
North stars
Siegfried is, everyone agrees, the hardest of the Ring dramas to bring off. The first and almost insurmountable problem is…
