Category: Opera
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From the House of the Dead at the Royal Opera House review ****
From the House of the Dead Royal Opera House, 22nd March 2018 Now this is it what opera is all about. Not just some portly punters, (though a couple of the chaps here were carrying as much timber as me), parking themselves mid-stage and belting out their arias. No here…
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the ENO review *****
A Midsummer Night’s Dream English National Opera, 4th March 2018 Out of a long list of wildly inappropriate events that I dragged BD along to when she was younger perhaps provocateur Christopher Alden’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in this very house was the most egregious. Not because the…
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Satyagraha at English National Opera review ***
Satyagraha English National Opera, 27th February 2018 Finally I have got to see all three of Philip Glass’s seminal operas, Einstein on the Beach (the science-y one), Akhnaten (the religious one) and now this Satyagraha (the political one). Einstein on the Beach was a recreation of the original Robert Wilson…
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Marnie at English National Opera review *****
Marnie English National Opera, The Coliseum, 3rd December 2017 I really don’t understand why the serious broadsheet reaction to Nico Muhly’s new opera has been so lukewarm. They generally seem to have admired the score, commended the ENO Orchestra’s playing under new Director Martyn Brabbins, praised many of the performers…
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Opera: Passion, Power and Politics exhibition at the V&A review ****
Opera: Passion, Power and Politics V&A, 13th November 2017 You can’t seem to navigate on t’Internet, (all right, the bit that isn’t hate, porn or celebrity, which doesn’t leave much), for confessionals from opera lovers telling you how they came to love the “queen”, or is it “king”, of art…
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Giulio Cesare opera at Hackney Empire review ***
Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Parts 1 and 2 Hackney Empire, 7th October 2017 The more opera I see, the less I want to see. Yet this does not mean I don’t enjoy opera: on the contrary, when it works, it can match the best that theatre can offer in terms…
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The Exterminating Angel at the Royal Opera House review *****
The Exterminating Angel Royal Opera House, 24th April 2017 Without a shadow of a doubt the third act of Thomas Ades’s third opera, The Exterminating Angel, is the most powerful piece of musical theatre that I have ever seen. And it is up there with the best theatre I have…
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Balm in Gilead at the Guildhall School review ***
Balm in Gilead Silk Street Theatre, 27th March 2017 Less a review, more a plug for the terrific music, drama and opera on offer to you, the London public, from the massively talented students (and teachers) at the Guildhall School on the Barbican site. There’s all manner of free stuff…
At Home He Feels Like A Tourist 