Opera
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…
