MusicalCriticism.com: Opera Reviews

Opera Review: Smetana's The Two Widows with Scottish Opera (Edinburgh Festival) Scottish Opera's new production of Smetana's underperformed opera The Two Widows has a lot going for it: delightful, relatively unfamiliar music, an attractive cast of principals, a sense of pace and occasion and a workmanlike, often amusing English translation that caused plenty of chuckles on the second night... more>	Musical review: The Wizard of Oz (Royal Festival Hall) Considering it opened to largely damning reviews earlier in the week, I was surprised to find how much I actually enjoyed the Royal Festival Hall's summer production of The Wizard of Oz. Whilst it's not the most profound or brilliant production of a musical I've ever seen, there was much to enjoy, not least the vibrant performances... more>
Opera Review: Hansel and Gretel receives its first-ever production at Glyndebourne It has been worth the wait. Glyndebourne's first ever staging of Humperdinck's Märchenoper or 'fairy tale' opera is a real feast for the ears and is not exactly a hardship to watch either. It has energy in abundance, a very attractive pair of principals and a clear enough view of what the piece is all... more>	Opera review: Verdi's Un giorno di regno at Iford Arts Performances of Verdi's second opera, Un giorno di regno, are few and far between. Although the Royal Opera put it on in concert in London in 1999, it's left to smaller, more adventurous companies to take the plunge and stage this supposedly second-rate work. Opera della Luna have done just that at Iford Manor... more>
Opera Review: Iolanta & Pulcinella at Opera Holland Park For the closing bonanza of its 2008 season, Opera Holland Park has continued what feels like an emerging Tchaikovsky cycle – after truly excellent productions of Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades in recent years – with Iolanta, the composer's final opera. Originally designed as part of a double bill that also... more>	Opera Review: La Gioconda (Holland Park) Though Opera Holland Park's new production of La Gioconda is being sold as a novelty, in truth the piece has always been at the margins of the repertoire rather than outside it. It's only a couple of years since The Royal Opera opened their season with it; ENO did it as part of their Italian series; and the Met will produce it next year. more>
Opera Review: The Rake's Progress (ROH) Robert Lepage's new production of The Rake's Progress, unveiled in Brussels in April 2007 and now in London by way of Lyon and San Francisco, transforms the action to 1950s East-Coast America, where Stravinsky was living while writing his masterpiece. Tom Rakewell is seduced by the ultimate American Dream - Vegas and Hollywood... more>	Opera Review: Jette Parker Young Artists' Summer Concert (ROH) Every summer, the Royal Opera's Jette Parker Young Artists close the season with a concert of staged extracts from a variety of operas. This year, the concert united three portions of operas featuring Counts and Countesses with a French theme thrown in.In theory, being given part of Tanya McCallin's handsome set... more>
Opera Review: Cavalli's Giasone with the Early Opera Company at Iford Manor The Early Opera Company and their director Christian Curnyn are regulars at Opera at Iford, the festival hosted in the grounds of Iford Manor, some 5 miles outside Bath. The opera season at Iford spreads itself leisurely over the summer months but 34 new productions over the last 13 seasons is no mean feat... more>	Musical Review: Kurt Weill's Street Scene (Young Vic) People like to look upon Kurt Weill as a cut above the average Broadway composer, almost as if the art form is distasteful. But although Weill himself described Street Scene as 'An American Opera' and wrote of his desire to create a new integrated form that would represent high art on the American stage, we know full... more>
Opera review: La boheme opens at Covent Garden with Nicole Cabell as Musetta The indestructibility of La bohème is a double-edged sword. While the strength of Puccini's score – its pacing and melodic invention – can prevail in almost any circumstances, the work is such a sure-fire success in an opera house's repertory that there's not the same requirement to reinvigorate and reinvent it as there... more>	Musical Review: Noel Coward's Sail Away is revived by Lost Musicals When Noel Coward's musical Sail Away hit Broadway in 1961, it was dismissed as old-fashioned compared to the other shows then playing (Camelot, Carnival and Milk and Honey, for instance). Inasmuch as the story is set on an ocean liner, one can see why critics might have seen Sail Away as a throwback to Anything Goes. more>
Opera review: Robert Carsen's staging of Bernstein's Candide comes to London I can't think of a more brilliant or inventive way of presenting Bernstein's Candide than Robert Carsen's production for English National Opera. Instead of presenting Bernstein's musicalisation of the Voltaire novella in the age of the Enlightenment, Carsen plays it for what it is: a satire of 1950s America. more>	Opera Review: Sir Charles Mackerras conducts Figaro at Covent Garden In the programme notes for his production of Le nozze di Figaro for The Royal Opera, director David McVicar writes: 'What guided my decision to set the action in the milieu of a French château in 1830? What has guided my direction of the singers away from traditional comedy to a more heartfelt reading of the text?' more>
Musical Review: Brian Conley opens in The Music Man at Chichester Considering he was the main motivation behind it, it's sad that Brian Conley is the only serious weakness in the Chichester Festival's otherwise superb revival of Meredith Willson's The Music Man. The show receives a slick and brilliant production from director Rachel Kavanaugh and choreographer Stephen Mear. more>	Opera Review: Amanda Echalez in Tosca at Opera Holland Park It's a cliché to wheel out Joseph Kerman's famous of description of Tosca as a 'shabby little shocker', but it's hard to imagine a production more shabby and, paradoxically, disappointingly unshocking, than Stephen Barlow's updated version for Opera Holland Park. And it's not the fact that the rickety set is prone to falling... more>
Opera Review: Simon Callow directs Mozart's Magic Flute at Opera Holland Park Simon Callow has a strong Mozartian pedigree having not only been the first to play the composer in Peter Schaffer's Amadeus but also having embodied Schikaneder, librettist of the Magic Flute, in Milos Forman's film of the play. The film, in particular, shaped a whole generation's view of Mozart as a divinely inspired... more>	Opera Review: Judith Weir's A Night at the Chinese Opera (Scottish Opera) Chinese opera, Scottish Opera, Chinese… this is most intriguing. Weir could have chosen a name like 'The Orphan Chao', or any number of others that do not include the word 'Chinese'. She immediately sets up a culturally-embedded expectation of strange-making, of things not being what they seem...more>
Opera Review: Ariadne auf Naxos at the ROH Christof Loy's 2002 production of Ariadne auf Naxos, one of the more problematic operas produced by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, still looks as stylish and sophisticated as ever. The Prologue begins with a dazzling coup de theâtre as the entrance hall of the house of 'the richest man in Vienna' is elevated to reveal the frenzied... more>	Opera Review: Sir Charles Mackerras conducts Figaro at Covent Garden In the programme notes for his production of Le nozze di Figaro for The Royal Opera, director David McVicar writes: 'What guided my decision to set the action in the milieu of a French château in 1830? What has guided my direction of the singers away from traditional comedy to a more heartfelt reading of the text?' more>
Opera Review: Don Carlo with Rolando Villazon (Royal Opera House) Since the Italian version has not been performed by the company since 1989, it's about time that Don Carlo returned to the repertory of the Royal Opera. Considered in some quarters to be Verdi's supreme achievement, the piece juxtaposes the inner turmoil of the heart with the external dual dominating forces of the Church... more>	Opera Review: La fille du régiment (Opera Holland Park) It says a great deal for the quality and sheer exuberance of Opera Holland Park's new production of La fille du régiment that it suffers little from comparison with Covent Garden's big-budget, big-star production of last year. After the poor weather of the season's first night, the sun was shining and in William Kerley's... more>
Review: Der Rosenkavalier at ENO Having now experienced David McVicar's production of Strauss and Hofmannsthal's Der Rosenkavalier at English National Opera, I have to wonder even more why the company has chosen to stage it in preference to their previous production by Jonathan Miller. Miller's staging was gorgeously designed and intelligently directed, and it had surely not been... more>	Opera Review: Il trovatore (Opera Holland Park) Opera Holland Park's 2008 season opened with a bang with this lively performance of Verdi's Il trovatore. The cast had to struggle against the cold – it was chilly enough to be able to see the singers' breath – and the rain on the auditorium's canopy, but between them they managed to bring a good deal of warmth to this dank June evening. more>
Opera Review: Tosca at the ROH Jonathan Kent's production of Tosca has been treated to some luxurious casts in its brief, two-year history. In this latest revival, Antonio Pappano conducted two singers who have justifiably become Covent Garden favourites, Paolo Gavanelli and Jonas Kaufmann, alongside a Tosca, Micaela Carosi, who was making her Royal Opera debut. more>	Review: Betwixt! The Musical at the King's Head Theatre If great things come in small packages, so too do great musicals sometimes play in little theatres. There's nothing quite like experiencing the honesty of a show performed in a fringe venue such as the King's Head, Islington, and Ian McFarlane's new musical, Betwixt!, certainly benefits from the intimacy of the space. more>
Review: Funny Girl at the Chichester Festival and Gypsy on BroadwayIt was instructive to see Gypsy (1959) and Funny Girl (1964) within the space of a couple of weeks. The two greatest Broadway musicals of Jule Styne – himself one of the finest but most underrated figures in the history of American musical theatre – have much in common. Both throw the optimism and the bright lights... more>	Concert Review: Nono's Prometeo at the RFH Adorno, the great musicologist and philosopher famed for the postulation that music encodes social allegory in its internal details of composition, would have loved Luigi Nono's Prometeo. It is a work, perhaps it is an opera though taxonomy is secondary to effect here, that conveys solely through music and dramatics, and not through text... more>
Opera Review: John Eliot Gardiner conducts Simon Boccanegra at the ROH In a Royal Opera season that's had its share of withdrawals and replacements, this revival of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra hasn't escaped. Several months ago it was announced that Nina Stemme, who was to have played Amelia, had decided not to add the role to her repertoire and shortly before this... more>	Opera Review: Ian Bostridge stars in Mozart's Idomeneo at the Barbican Although this concert performance of the Munich version of the piece was instigated at the behest of Ian Bostridge as part of his year-long Homeward Bound residency, the main reason for the evening's success was the stunning performance by the period-instrument orchestra Europa Galante under Biondi. more>
Opera Review: Claudio Abbado conducts Fidelio at Baden-Baden Only a conductor of great stature and integrity can afford to turn the essence of Beethoven's obsessional idealism in Fidelio into remorseless cruelty and brutality. The piece has often been hijacked by evil and despotic governments to serve as a fig leaf. Klemperer, long before old age and frailty reduced him to an obstinate... more>	Opera Review: Opera North's new Macbeth in Leeds To be a strong company you need a strong leader; to be a strong opera company you need a titan conductor. Perhaps Richard Farnes is not a titan, but from the control, the deep-rooted understanding and the vitality he exhibited for Opera North's new production of Verdi's Macbeth, he has truly shone and shown his full potential. more>
Opera Review: Placido Domingo in Tamerlano (Washington) More than forty years after his American debut, opera superstar Placido Domingo shows few signs of slowing down and just over a month ago in Madrid he added the role of Bajazet in Handel's Tamerlano to his repertoire, a rare foray into Baroque territory for him. Only a few weeks later, he has brought the work to Washington Opera. more>	Opera Review: Susan Graham excels in La clemenza di Tito (New York Met) There are many reasons to see the Met's current revival of La clemenza di Tito, but by far the best is Susan Graham's performance as Sesto. Returning to Mozart after a period dominated by French repertoire, Graham triumphed. Her rendition of 'Parto, parto' in the first act brought an electricity to the night... more>
Opera Review: World Premiere of Birtwistle's The Minotaur at the Royal Opera House The premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's long awaited new opera The Minotaur, written in collaboration with the poet David Harsent, was given on Tuesday to a packed Royal Opera House where the sense of occasion and of expectation was palpable and potent. It was a pleasure to be in attendance and to... more>	Opera Review: Christopher Hogwood conducts the AAM in Handel's Flavio (Barbican) The Academy of Ancient Music's one-off performance of Handel's opera Flavio at the Barbican was a complete sell out. Packed to the rafters, the audience buzzed with excitement, waiting for the slightly altered line-up; Sandrine Piau was replaced at the last minute by Karina Gauvin... more>
Opera Review: Birtwistle's Punch and Judy at the Young Vic (ENO) Harrison Birtwistle's first opera, Punch and Judy, is a music theatre work of utmost vitality, and violence. Written and premiered all of forty years ago, it is a piece that can still express the vigour of creative beginnings, that can still show the energy and brazenness of youth. Whereas Birtwistle's most recent work, The Minotaur, exhibited... more>	Opera Review: Amanda Roocroft and Alfie Boe star in Lehár's The Merry Widow (ENO) With its new production of The Merry Widow, the English National Opera provides a rare treat. Artistic achievement at a very high level and joyous entertainment combine to satisfy mind and soul. And thanks to Franz Lehár's wonderful melodies, one leaves the opera house smiling and singing the tunes... more>
Opera review: Thomas Hampson and Marcello Giordani in Ernani at the Met A standing ovation greeted the four principals on the closing night of this revival of Ernani, and apart from anything else it served to underline just how well the Met had served Verdi in casting the parts with big dramatic voices. And as a regular attendee of Covent Garden, it was interesting to see that the musical... more>>	Opera review: Angela Gheorghiu and Ramon Vargas in La boheme at the Met The Met is at its best when showcasing one of its traditional, large-scale, lavish productions, as the professional sheen of this revival of La bohème proved. Franco Zeffirelli's production dates from 1981 but the three massive, realistic sets are still as eye-catching as ever and made for a sure-fire crowd-pleaser... more>
Opera review: Nina Stemme in Der Rosenkavalier with Zurich Opera (RFH) A month and a half before David McVicar's new production of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier opens at the English National Opera, the forces of Zurich Opera under Franz Welser-Möst treated a packed Royal Festival Hall to a concert performance of the work of considerable refinement and quality... more>	Opera review: *Alvarez and Herrera in Carmen* at the ROH For this revival of Francesca Zambello*'s lavish production of Carmen, the Royal Opera have imported two leads who just a few weeks ago were performing the same roles in New York's Metropolitan Opera. Spanish-raised Mezzo-Soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera* and Covent Garden regular Marcelo Álvarez... more>
Opera review: Cecilia Bartoli in La Sonnambula in Baden-Baden The fact that Cecilia Bartoli chose this concert performance of La Sonnambula as her debut in singing Amina, speaks highly for the accompanying Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble and its founder and director Thomas Hengelbrock. Both Bartoli and Hengelbrock, an eminent specialist in early opera... more>	Opera review: Candide at New York City Opera Great musicals, so they say, are not written but rewritten. Yet in the case of Candide, all those revisions still left the world with a problematic work of art. On the one hand, elements of Leonard Bernstein's score suggest a masterpiece of satire, matching the Voltaire novella on which the musical is based. Just as the French Enlightenment philosopher... more>
Opera review: *Bryn Terfel stars in Verdi's Falstaff* at Welsh National Opera** It's nothing short of a privilege for Welsh National Opera to be able to cast the title role in Verdi's Falstaff with Bryn Terfel. Throughout this performance at Llandudno's Venue Cymru, there was a sense of Terfel giving back to his home crowd in exchange for the loyalty they've shown him over the years, indeed his rapport... more>	Opera review: Nelly Miricioiu stars in Macbeth If excitement rather than refinement was the order of the day in the Chelsea Opera Group's performance of Verdi's Macbeth, then that's probably in the spirit of the work itself. And as is usual for them, the company chose to perform something a little out of the ordinary, which in this case meant the original 1847 version of the opera. more>
Opera review: Rebecca Evans stars in WNO's The Magic Flute Given the many excellent qualities of Welsh National Opera's current touring production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, one has to wonder why it was shunned by all but The Guardian in the national press. This Flute is a lot more absorbing than the ROH's most recent revival of the same work earlier this year. Rebecca Evans was luxury... more>	Opera review: *Deborah Voigt in Tristan und Isolde* at the New York Met** This performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde was supposed to feature the dream team of Ben Heppner and Deborah Voigt in the title roles. Heppner has performed in this production before at the Met, and is acclaimed around the world as a leading exponent of the role of Tristan. Voigt made her role debut as Isolde in Vienna... more>
Opera review: *Natalie Dessay reprises Lucia di Lammermoor* at the New York Met** Mary Zimmerman's new production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor which opened the 2007-2008 Metropolitan Opera season has not been received with universal enthusiasm by the opera going public. But it was a fascinating evening in the theatre, and Dessay's electrifying performance of a... more>	Opera review: Gerald Finley in Eugene Onegin (ROH) As anyone who attended the matinee opening performance of the Royal Opera's new production of Fidelio last May will know, opera in the afternoon can be a sleepy affair. The singers aren't quite at their vocal peak or properly relaxed; the orchestra doesn't play with such incision; even the audience seems to behave with less sense of occasion. more>
Opera review: Nadja Michael stars in the ROH's new Salome David McVicar's new production of Salome at the Royal Opera House sets itself an admirable challenge, that of updating Wilde and Strauss's retelling of the bible story into some time between the two World Wars. There are some striking stage pictures but ultimately it brings more in the way of inconsistencies than it does revelations... more>	Opera review: Lucia di Lammermoor (ENO) Although the bel canto repertoire has never been well represented in English National Opera's repertoire, it comes as something of a surprise that the company has not until now performed Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti's most familiar serious opera. This new production of the piece, then, is something of a landmark event, and it was... more>
Opera review: Five:15 at Scottish Opera It's a risky business commissioning new works, but Scottish Opera has boldly pulled it off with five new short operas from composers and writers in Scotland who are new to the business. Each lasting 15 minutes, the works are complete in themselves. But, far from carrying the feeling of a one-act opera, each has the potential for expansion into full-length form. more>	Opera review: Kate Royal heads Cast B of Die Zauberflöte at ROH If Simon Keenlyside's Papageno was the great performance of the first cast of the Royal Opera's revival of Die Zauberflöte, Kate Royal's Pamina was the undoubted highlight of the second. She was supported by an ensemble which gelled far more convincingly to produce a properly life-enhancing performance... more>
Opera review: Judith Howarth stars in Madam Butterfly (ENO) It's only a couple of years old, but Anthony Minghella's production of Madam Butterfly is already on its second revival at English National Opera, where it opens the Sky Arts 2008 season in stylish form. The production remains extremely handsome and atmospheric. Minghella looks to the theatrical traditions of the East for inspiration... more>	Opera review: La traviata (ROH) By engaging Anna Netrebko as Violetta, Jonas Kaufmann as Alfredo and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Germont père, Covent Garden has certainly gone to town on the casting budget; this may be its tenth revival, but until now, Sir Richard Eyre's production of Verdi's La traviata for the Royal Opera hasn't been as lavishly cast since it was unveiled in 1994. more>
Opera review: Norah Amsellem leads Cast B of La traviata (ROH) After an 'A' cast which assembled three of the most sought after singers in the opera world in Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, it was inevitable that the 'B' cast for the Royal Opera's La traviata would have less sparkle. In the event, Netrebko's well-publicised early departure due to bronchitis... more>	Opera review: Die Zauberflöte (ROH) For this third revival of David McVicar's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, we were lucky to have two of the greatest Papagenos of recent years onstage. Simon Keenlyside – now indispensable to this production – took on the character with verve, but the other show-stealing performance came from Sir Thomas Allen as the Speaker of the Temple. more>
Opera review: Sarah Tynan stars in The Mikado (ENO) Slick, glossy and professional, English National Opera's revival of Jonathan Miller's production of The Mikado bears all the signs of a well-rehearsed show. The singing is mostly very good, with some excellent individual contributions, the ensemble is lively and everything fizzes along at a good pace. Yet throughout this performance... more>	Opera review: Britten's Peter Grimes (Opera North) The award-winning production of Peter Grimes returns for a revival with most of the original cast from the 2006 season at Opera North and is full of all the elements of this great production of Grimes which made it special last time. Those who were fortunate enough to see last time should do so again and those that weren’t should... more>
Opera review: World Premiere of Jonathan Dove's Pinocchio (Opera North) Take a naughty wooden boy, a loving father and caring blue fairy godmother, add a sly and wicked cat and fox, a friendly cricket and snail, and you start to get an idea of what composer Jonathan Dove and librettist Alasdair Middleton had in mind for the world premiere of Pinocchio given by Opera North. more>	Opera review: La Cenerentola (ROH) The subtitle of La Cenerentola may be 'The triumph of goodness' but The Royal Opera's current revival of the work cannot be judged in quite such positive terms. Rossini's reworking of the Cinderella story is an absolute masterpiece and its musical and comic riches are such that only the most dire of performances (which this isn't) render... more>
Opera Review: Glyndebourne on Tour: Britten's Albert Herring Contemporary critical opinion of Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring suggests that what at first appears to be a comedy about the coming-of-age of a naïve village youth is actually a more ambitious moral tale about the rejection of the bourgeois social elite and their outdated sexual norms... more>	Opera review: Il barbiere di Siviglia (Scottish Opera) Scottish Opera's Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) by Rossini is the best production I have seen this year. From the famous overture to the emancipation of love at the close, the company displayed an abundance of musicality, comedy and flair in the setting of Seville in Southern Spain. No doubt the director Sir Thomas Allen... more>
Opera review: Haitink returns: Wagner's Parsifal (ROH) While many will be delighted by the return of Bernard Haitink to The Royal Opera for the first time since he stepped down as Music Director in 2002, I find it difficult to be equally glad about the decision to celebrate it by reviving Klaus Michael Grüber's production of Parsifal. A co-production with Teatro Real, Madrid, it is based on... more>	Opera review: Britten's The Turn of the Screw (ENO) Quite simply the most riveting thing I've seen in months, English National Opera's new production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw is a haunting, compelling experience which should be seen by all who appreciate intelligent theatre.Turning its back on the critical doldrums of recent months, the company has the winning... more>
Opera review: Maria Stuarda (Chelsea Opera Group) Donizetti's fascination with English history, and especially with the character of Elizabeth I, resulted in a number of operas, including Il castello di Kenilworth, Roberto Devereux and Maria Stuarda. The latter is the most famous and probably the greatest of the three, and was the well-deserved choice for the Chelsea Opera Group's autumn 2007... more>	Opera review: L'elisir d'amore with Stefano Secco (ROH) After last season's La Fille du régiment, Laurent Pelly returns to Covent Garden with L'elisir d'amore, a co-production with the Opéra National de Paris. This production was another victim of the Royal Opera's misfortune regarding high-profile withdrawals and in a performance dedicated to Luciano Pavarotti, it's particularly... more>
Opera review: King Croesus (Opera North) In a year where Opera North has presented three early if not obscure works - Dido and Aeneas, Orfeo and now The Fortunes of King Croesus - the latter must be the pinnacle. Reinhard Keiser's work deserves to be placed alongside that of Handel and Purcell - he wrote over sixty operas of which now only eighteen survive - and should be given more attention. more>	Opera review: L'elisir d'amore with Dmitri Korchak (ROH) The unfortunate departure of Rolando Villazón from The Royal Opera's new production of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore left the company with a logistical headache. Russian tenor Dmitri Korchak took over for last night's performance and will appear again on 29 November. Korchak turned out to be one of the few impressive elements of... more>
Opera review: Falstaff (Opera North) A strong ensemble cast and a classic production make the second offering of Opera North's autumn 2007 season, Verdi's Falstaff, a feast for the eyes and ears. Having been impressed with Matthew Warchus' production when it was new in 1997, I was delighted to find that not only has it retained its charm, but in the hands of a revival director (Peter Relton) it has... more>	Opera review: Madama Butterfly (Opera North) The cornerstone of Opera North's autumn season is a new production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly by the ever-enterprising Tim Albery (who's also responsible for the new production of The Fortunes of King Croesus). But in the event, although the orchestra and singers gave of their all, it turned out to be more of an interesting experience... more>
Opera review: Semele (Early Opera Company) 'Myself I shall adore' sang Elizabeth Watts in the title role at this concert performance of Handel's Semele, and one can't really blame her. The British soprano has the complete package: a ravishingly beautiful voice, the technique to negotiate even the most taxing of Handel showcase arias, great looks and a bubbly personality. more>	Opera review: Aida (ENO) The fatal flaw of English National Opera's new production of Verdi's Aida is the way in which Jo Davies (director) and Edward Gardner (conductor) have decided to emphasise the work's intimate aspects at the expense of its grandeur. This approach is a complete miscalculation of the way the opera is constructed. A central Verdian aesthetic throughout his career was contrast. more>
Opera review: Rita (ROH) In theory, it seemed like a good idea to stage Donizetti's rarely-performed one-act opera Rita for the Royal Opera's Young Artists as part of the annual 'Meet the Young Artists' week. But although I was delighted to have the opportunity to see the work in the theatre, neither the music nor the production quite lived up to its promise. Rita tells the story of a wife and her two husbands. more>	Opera review: La straniera (Opera Rara) Opera Rara has a reputation for bringing largely forgotten works back to the public's attention and they did it yet again with this performance of Bellini's La straniera. Indeed, the accumulative power of the piece is so great that this excellent performance made me wonder why it ever left the repertoire in the first place. more>
Opera review: The Coronation of Poppea English National Opera has assembled an excellent cast for their production of The Coronation of Poppea. But although some of the singers deliver truly remarkable performances, stage director Chen Shi-Zheng's production of Monteverdi's masterpiece is problematic. Maybe the director viewed the Coliseum's stage as too large for Monteverdi. more>	Dido and Aeneas (OAE) In spite of several excellent performers on stage, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightement's production of Dido and Aeneas - so promising on paper - turned out to be a disappointment to many of the audience. The last few minutes of the performance - Sarah Connolly's magnificent rendering of Dido's farewell lament, followed by the beautifully sung final chorus... more>
The Magic Flute (ENO) As Nicholas Hytner's 1988 staging of the Magic Flute is dusted off for the final time at the London Coliseum, it's easy to see why it's remained an audience favourite for so long. It still manages to strike the balance between the sublime and the earthy that is so important for this opera, and although some of the creaky sets show their age a little, the production retains... more>	Götterdämmerung (ROH) Yesterday's performance of Götterdämmerung, the end of the Royal Opera's first complete Ring Cycle in over a decade, was greeted with loud cheers and a standing ovation from some members of the audience. But while the production was as stimulating as before and sometimes faultless, the musical performance left much to be desired. Antonio Pappano looked... more>
Siegfried (ROH) With Siegfried, the temperature has really turned up on Keith Warner's production of the Ring for Covent Garden. The musical performance far surpassed that for the curiously muted Walküre, and the sheer emotional devastation of Warner's handling of the drama - especially in Act 3 - made for an increasingly compelling experience. The treatment of the... more>	Carmen (ENO) Thrilling, contemporary, thought-provoking: what more could be asked of an opera production? ENO have scored a major triumph with their season-opener, a new production of Bizet's Carmen by the film director Sally Potter. Far from seeming out of her depth in a medium unfamiliar to her, Potter brings considerable flair and cinematic deftness to her first opera production. more>
Das Rheingold (ROH) It's almost comical to observe that as the reviews gradually pour in for the first performance of Keith Warner's Royal Opera production of Das Rheingold as part of a complete cycle, the critics who roundly dismissed it when it was new cannot help but award it four stars - albeit begrudgingly - and admit they were impressed. To those of us who admired it from the start... more>	Die Walküre (ROH) The first three times I saw Keith Warner's spectacular production of Die Walküre back in 2005, I was both thrilled and moved to tears. The deftness of the handling of the narrative was extraordinary, but the emotional punch of the experience was what really made it special for me. Now performed as part of a cycle for the first time, I feel the production has lost some of its... more>
Iphigénie en Tauride (ROH) Life is rarely black and white, especially in Ancient Greek drama. But Robert Carsen's new production of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride would have us believe otherwise. Carsen treats the drama as a black void into which no light spills until the gods' anger is quelled in the closing tableau of the opera, when the stage is suddenly illuminated. more>	L'amore dei tre re (OHP) In what was both the most impressive production ever staged by Opera Holland Park and the highlight of July's opera season in London, an ideal team of soloists, chorus, orchestra, conductor, designer and director came together in perfect union or this highly anticipated presentation of L'amore dei tre Re by Montemezzi. more>
On danse The latest On Danfe production is a surreal plunge into the world of modern dance. Against an interactive video backdrop of naked men and women, elephants walking on a tightrope and eighteenth-century ladies bouncing on clouds (to name but a few), dancers from all genres created a new and exciting expression of Jean-Philippe Rameau's music. more>	A Flowering Tree Although billed as an opera in two acts, A Flowering Tree is possibly better described as a dramatico-musical work, particularly when present in a semi-staging such as that at the Barbican Centre. The libretto for the work, written by composer John Adams and long-time collaborator Peter Sellars, is based on an old South-Indian folk-tale. more>
La traviata(OHP) La dame aux camélias was a mere five years old when it was transformed into the opera La traviata. And when the play version of Alexandre Dumas' novel received its premiere in 1852, Verdi almost immediately began setting it to music, completing it the following year. more>	Cosi fan tutte(ROH) This revival of Mozart's Così fan tutte is the perfect way to end the Royal Opera's 2006-07 season. After a slightly dud Rigoletto last week, it's great to see musical and dramatic standards back on a high under an ideal conductor-director team and an excellent cast. Jonathan Miller's production is an absolute pleasure. more>
Lakmé Lively choreography, committed performances, sensitive conducting, great costumes: Opera Holland Park's new production of Delibes' Lakmé has everything going for it. Except the opera itself. Perhaps it's personal taste - I didn't much take to Massenet's Thaïs a couple of weeks ago, either... more>	Tosca After the damp squib of its unveiling last June, with a disappointing stage debut from Angela Gheorghiu in the title role, Jonathan Kent's production of Puccini's Tosca has really come into its own in this first revival. Gone is the unconvincingly virginal white gown, which resembled a wedding dress... more>
Il barbiere di Siviglia Take note: Opera Holland Park's new production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville does far more justice to the work than either of the most recent productions by The Royal Opera and English National Opera. This Barber is packed with razor sharp humour, and the musical standards are very high. more>	Rigoletto Inspiration flowed from Verdi's pen like water from a tap when he was writing his seventeenth opera, Rigoletto. Although he spent a long time thinking about the project, and sketches for the aria 'Caro nome' suggest that he was originally intending to include the number in his previous work, Stiffelio... more>
Kismet Even if the prospect of the musical itself doesn't tempt you, it is worth catching English National Opera's new production of Wright and Forrest's Kismet to witness one of the nation's greatest musical stars rising to new heights in the most challenging role of his career. Michael Ball grabs every note... more>	Benvenuto Cellini When Sir Colin Davis conducts Berlioz, the result is a carnival of vibrant lights, colours and sounds. Appropriately so in the case of Benvenuto Cellini, which has the Shrove Tuesday Roman carnival as its background. Sir Colin led a cast of distinguished soloists and the London Symphony Orchestra.. more>
Sweeney Todd In spite of Bryn Terfel's towering presence and astounding vocal performance in the title role, this semi-staging of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd was mostly a dire mess. In truth, some of the problem lies in the work itself, which has no heart whatsoever... more>	Thais The climax of the Royal Opera's year-long French-themed season was this concert performance of Massenet's Thaïs (repeated on Friday 29 June) starring the American soprano Renée Fleming. The event revealed both the flaws and the innovations of the opera. Louis Gallet's libretto, based on Anatole France's novel, is unusual... more>
Lucia di Lammermoor Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor is a psychologically gripping opera that exudes passion, tension and drama. Often marked as a showcase opera, it is a work favoured by sopranos for its dazzling bel canto arias. But Scottish Opera serves up much more than that: director John Doyle... more>	Katya Kabanova Janácek's Katya Kabanova at the Royal Opera House is memorable because of its extraordinary artistic excellence. But it is also deeply moving because of conductor Sir Charles Mackerras' connection to Janácek and, in particular, to Katya Kabanova. In 1951 Mackerras conducted the first performance... more>
Don Giovanni Mixture is at the heart of Don Giovanni. Even more than in the other two operas that Mozart wrote with Lorenzo da Ponte - Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte - the composer employs a wide range of musical styles that collide in a piece that is almost sui generis... more>	Madama Butterfly Scottish Opera's Madama Butterfly embraces the creativity of Puccini's writing and here produced a fine performance, with an accomplished cast and orchestra to match. Madama Butterfly is one of Puccini's best-loved operas. Taking its plot from David Belasco's drama, the piece is focused on the story of a Geisha... more>
La clemenza di Tito Once again English National Opera has assembled a stellar cast, this time for Mozart's La clemenza di Tito. There was not one weak singer on stage and several of them were outstanding. Written in 1791 for the coronation of the Habsburg ruler Leopold II as King of Bohemia... more>	Jenufa Continuing its tradition of exploring an eclectic repertoire, the second production of Opera Holland Park's 2007 season takes them into Czech territory with Janácek's Jenufa. Once the sun had gone down on opening night, the performance overcame a slightly blurred first act and gave us scintillating intensity. more>
Nabucco Last night's new production of Verdi's Nabucco signified the dawning of a new era for Opera Holland Park. After years of performing under the same canopy in their open air theatre in Kensington, the company has finally acquired a completely new performing space. more>	Pélleas et Mélisande It's fourteen years since Pélleas et Mélisande was last performed at Covent Garden, so this new production - first seen at last year's Salzburg festival - was all the more highly anticipated. And with a cast including three of today's great opera singers, plus Sir Simon Rattle in the pit... more>
Death in Venice English National Opera's production of Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice is a unique meeting of truly great minds that also provides an outstanding cast and a most sensitive and fascinating staging. Myfanwy Piper's libretto is based on Der Tod in Venedig by the great German writer Thomas Mann. more>	Orfeo This year's Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music concluded with a ravishing performance of Monteverdi's Orfeo. Though - according to the Festival's publicity booklet - it was supposed to be semi-staged, the presentation was nowhere short of a full operatic experience. more>
Fidelio At the height of the Act Two finale of Beethoven's Fidelio, the main protagonist, Leonore, sings the line 'O welch' ein Augenblick!', which translates as 'O, what a moment!'. Yet in spite of some exquisite singing and playing, what this performance lacked was precisely what Leonore mentions... more>	Stiffelio Almost everything about Verdi's Stiffelio is incredibly modern. For one thing, the play on which it is based (Le Pasteur by Souvestre and Bourgeois) was written not long before Verdi gave it the operatic treatment. As a result, the costumes and settings of the original production reflected the real-life experiences... more>
On the Town Two years after its initial sell-out run in 2005, English National Opera's production of Bernstein's On the Town has bounded back into the Coliseum with all the vitality and exuberance of Broadway at its best. The company has lent the piece its full resources... more>	Giulio Cesare Full marks to the Barbican management for presenting such excellent guest orchestras as, on this occasion, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Seeing renowned baroque expert René Jacobs conduct is also a privilege to be thankful for. But, though in the event this concert - a semi-staged performance... more>
Owen Wingrave Pacifism was one of the themes closest to Benjamin Britten's heart. He engaged with anti-war sentiments in works of various genres, from the War Requiem (which was written for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral) to the Pacifist March... more>	Double Bill After producing Shostakovich's grisly and depressing Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk together in 2004, Royal Opera Music Director Antonio Pappano and director Richard Jones have reunited for a double bill of early twentieth-century comic operas by Ravel and Puccini. more>
Satyagraha The English National Opera production of Philip Glass' Satyagraha is a stage spectacle well worth seeing. It is entertaining, fascinating and informative. However, it is debatable whether Glass' composition, described as his second opera, can be regarded as an opera. more>	Orfeo Perhaps the most important feature of Philip Pickett's presentation of L'Orfeo is his thorough knowledge of the score and his unobtrusive direction of cast and instrumentalists. Pickett researched all aspects of Monteverdi's masterpiece in great detail and his painstaking work resulted in a historically authentic performance. more>
The Tempest Whatever one thinks about Thomas Adès' 2004 take on Shakespeare's The Tempest, there is no doubt of the high quality and unstinting commitment of the cast. There are, indeed, five knock-out vocal performances... more>	Beatrice di Tenda When Bellini first sat down to write an opera for La Fenice in Venice with the renowned librettist Felice Romani in 1833, it was to have been based on a story by Alexandre Dumas the elder about Queen Christina of Sweden. But the tale just didn't capture Bellini's imagination. more>
Agrippina ENO fielded an excellent cast for this new production of Agrippina. Indeed, not one singer let the side down in Handel's early masterpiece. With such team work ENO can look forward to further great things to come. The most innovative part of the production is director David McVicar's daring... more>

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