Opera
This is how G&S should be staged: ENO's HMS Pinafore reviewed
Until 1881, HMS Pinafore was the second-longest-running show in West End history. Within a year of its première it had…
We'll be talking about Royal Opera's Jenufa two decades from now
Leos Janacek cared about words. He’d hang about central Brno, notebook in hand, eavesdropping on conversations and trying to capture…
Hits you where it hurts: Welsh National Opera's Madam Butterfly reviewed
‘It’s generally agreed that in contemporary practice, this opera proposes significant ethical and cultural problems,’ says the director Lindy Hume…
Neither Tristan nor Isolde quite convinced: Glyndebourne's Tristan und Isolde reviewed
Glyndebourne is nothing if not honest. ‘In response to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions our 2021 performances of Tristan und Isolde…
Zips along with enormous vim: Malcolm Arnold's The Dancing Master reviewed
Malcolm Arnold composed his opera The Dancing Master in 1952 for BBC television. It never appeared, the problem being the…
The finest Falstaff you’ll see this summer
Comedy’s a funny thing. No, seriously, the business of making people laugh is as fragile, as mercurial as cryptocurrency —…
You'll shrug where you should marvel: Garsington's Amadigi reviewed
When you think of Handel’s Amadigi (in so far as anyone thinks about the composer’s rarely staged, also-ran London score…
Lush, elegant and vivid: Der Rosenkavalier at Garsington reviewed
At the turning point of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Der Rosenkavalier, all the clocks stop. Octavian has arrived…
World-class music, heavily symbolic staging: Glyndebourne's Katya Kabanova reviewed
At the first night of Glyndebourne Festival 2021 there was relief and joyful expectation as Gus Christie made his speech…
The two composers who defined British cinema also wrote inspired operas
It’s my new lockdown ritual. Switch on the telly, cue up the menu and scroll down to where the vintage…
Another cracking take on the opera film: Marquee TV’s Turn of the Screw reviewed
I’m still waiting for the Royal Opera to step up. Nearly a year into the Covid crisis and what do…
A coherent evening of real opera: GSMD's Triple Bill reviewed
Covid has been many things to the arts — most of them unprintable. A plague, a scourge, a disaster from…
A new opera that deserves more than one outing: Royal Opera's New Dark Age reviewed
It’s quite a title sequence. Puccini swells on the soundtrack and words flash before your eyes. ‘Ecstatic!’ ‘Spellbound!’ ‘Passionate!’ ‘Dazzled!’…
I pounded my car horn like a Neapolitan cabbie: ENO's drive-in Bohème reviewed
The email from English National Opera was blunt: ‘Your arrival time is 18.25. If you arrive outside your allocated time…
Why imperfect operas like Don Carlo are more interesting than perfect ones
In the 62 years since I first heard and saw Don Carlo, in the famous and long-lasting production by Visconti…
The best recordings of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges
‘I don’t want to do my work. I want to go for a walk. I want to eat all the…
It costs a lot of money to look this cheap: Metropolitan Opera’s At-Home Gala reviewed
Desperate times call for desperate measures. With the world’s opera houses currently dark, the New York Metropolitan Opera tackled the…
The musical vaccination we all need against the bleak times ahead: ETO’s Cosi fan tutte reviewed
Anyone familiar with Joe Hill-Gibbins’s work will brace instinctively when the curtain goes up on his new Figaro. He’s the…
A lost opera from the most powerful musician you’ve never heard of: La ville morte reviewed
Who was the most influential figure in 20th-century classical music? Stravinsky? Pierre Boulez? What about Bernstein or Britten? John Cage…
Eurotrash Verdi: ENO’s Luisa Miller reviewed
Verdi’s Luisa Miller is set in the Tyrol in the early 17th century, and for some opera directors that’s a…