Opera
When will I see a Carmen set in 19th-century Seville?
No critic sets out to be a reactionary, even though it’s much easier that way. There’s no real satisfaction in…
Rattle makes Schumann shine and sing
Phrenology, eh? It’s cobblers, plainly, but Robert Schumann didn’t know that and his biographer Martin Geck tells how in 1846,…
Words are the most important part of any opera
The long days wane, summer fades and sure enough, the big international guest orchestras begin to land at the BBC…
Don’t miss this dark Hansel and Gretel
The Three Choirs Festival always feels so nourishing, so eternally English, that you sometimes forget how much history has been…
The concert of the year
Ah, so that’s where the kangaroo comes in! Garsington Opera produces a souvenir mug each summer decorated with cartoons of…
Delightful Rossini at Glyndebourne
It’s impossible to say what Rossini would have made of Glyndebourne’s production of Il turco in Italia, but you can…
A first-class production of Puccini’s Western
Nature smiled on the opening week of Opera Holland Park’s new season. There’s no better advertisement for semi-outdoor opera than…
The Arts Council’s bleak vision for the future of opera
English National Opera’s first production created in Manchester is Angel’s Bone, a one-act opera by Du Yun and the librettist…
In defence of Hindemith
There’s a photo of Paul Hindemith with the pianist Artur Schnabel on hands and knees, surrounded by model railway track.…
A spring mood lifter: Tales of Love and Loss at the Linbury Theatre reviewed
This year’s Jette Parker Artists showcase is a triple bill of modern-ish operas; a cleverly assembled trittico of one-acters, linked…
The artistic collapse of Welsh National Opera
On the first night of Welsh National Opera’s new Flying Dutchman, the company’s co-directors walked on stage to salute their…
An outstanding Turn of the Screw
Never let it be said that The Spectator fails to follow up an arts story. Long-term readers will recall that…
Royal Opera’s Siegfried is magnificent
Covent Garden’s new Ring cycle has reached Siegfried, and once again, you can only marvel at Wagner’s Shakespeare-like ability to…
Recordings have stunted us
Bring me my bow of burning gold; or failing that, the opening notes of Elgar’s Second Symphony. That’s how I’ve…
‘I didn’t expect to love Wagner’
By the end of Siegfried, the third opera in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, the king of the gods is…
A playful, big-hearted, intelligent new opera
Some people like art to have a message. So here’s one, delivered by Katsushika Hokusai near the end of Dai…
What a masterpiece. What a man: Borodin at the Barbican reviewed
Gianandrea Noseda conducted the London Symphony Orchestra last week in a programme of Stravinsky, Chopin and Borodin. The Stravinsky was…
Richard Jones’s Boris Godunov feels like a parody
Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov is back at Covent Garden, and there are ninjas. This isn’t a spoiler. There hasn’t been a…
Rattle’s glorious Janacek
The Czech author Karel Capek is probably best known for his plays: high-concept speculative dramas such as R.U.R. and The…
This Royal Opera Traviata is no ordinary revival
First opera of the year, first night back in London, and the jolly old metrop was already springing surprises. A…
The magnificence of Beare’s Chamber Music Festival
The quartet is the basic unit of string chamber music. Two violins, a viola and a cello: subtract any one…
An opera that will actually make you laugh
‘What we want is proper comedy!’ bellows the male chorus in the opening seconds of Prokofiev’s L’amour des trois oranges…
Intoxicating Elgar from the London Phil
By all accounts, the world première of Elgar’s Sea Pictures at the October 1899 Norwich Festival made quite a splash.…
The orchestra that makes pros go weak at the knees
Stravinsky’s The Firebird begins in darkness, and it might be the softest, deepest darkness in all music. Basses and cellos…
In defence of Katie Mitchell
Janacek’s The Makropulos Case is a weird and very wonderful opera, but its basic plot isn’t hard to follow. Still,…
