New kid on the block
The new Grange Park Opera at Horsley is amazing, as everyone who visits it must agree. In less than a…
Gustav Mahler
When I began listening to music seriously, in about 1950, I had read about Mahler but wasn’t able to hear…
Dressed to thrill
Mitridate, re di Ponto was Mozart’s fifth opera, written and first produced when he was 14 years old. Absolutely amazing.…
Twin peaks
In an essay called ‘Wagner’s fluids’, Susan Sontag concludes, ‘The depth and grandeur of feeling of which Wagner is capable…
Myths and morals
Handel’s Semele, one of the most enjoyable operas (or opera-oratorio, if you insist) in the repertoire, is, in its upshot,…
Death wish
Anyone who thinks they have experienced absolute boredom, or even doubts that such a state can exist, should go to…
Mild things
English Touring Opera is playing safe this spring, with Tosca and Patience, and was rewarded, in Cambridge at least, with…
Beyond comprehension
The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s ‘Belief and Beyond Belief’ season is drawing to a close, without making it in any degree…
Fallen angel
The Adèsives were out in force at Covent Garden last Monday for the UK première of their hero’s third opera,…
Take a bow
Monteverdi 450 — the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists’ tour of his three operas to 33 cities across two…
Fatal distraction
I don’t think that I have left a theatre many times feeling as depressed and irritated as after the Royal…
Statue-esque
Why set a supremely great play to music? The Winter’s Tale, the play of Shakespeare’s that I love most, has…
Statue-esque
Why set a supremely great play to music? The Winter’s Tale, the play of Shakespeare’s that I love most, has…
Statue-esque
Why set a supremely great play to music? The Winter’s Tale, the play of Shakespeare’s that I love most, has…
Tough love
Frank Martin is one of those composers whose work seems to survive only by virtue of constantly renewed neglect. His…
Tough love
Frank Martin is one of those composers whose work seems to survive only by virtue of constantly renewed neglect. His…
Tough love
Frank Martin is one of those composers whose work seems to survive only by virtue of constantly renewed neglect. His…
Tough love
Frank Martin is one of those composers whose work seems to survive only by virtue of constantly renewed neglect. His…
A whirlwind life
The dust cover features one of the best-known caricatures of Richard Wagner, his enormous head in this version opened like…
A whirlwind life
The dust cover features one of the best-known caricatures of Richard Wagner, his enormous head in this version opened like…
Losing the plot
Fully to enjoy Opera North’s new production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel you need to take a trinocular perspective on…
Losing the plot
Fully to enjoy Opera North’s new production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel you need to take a trinocular perspective on…
Losing the plot
Fully to enjoy Opera North’s new production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel you need to take a trinocular perspective on…
Bruckner by numbers
It used to be said that Bruckner composed the same symphony nine times, whereas, thanks to the comparative frequency of…
Bruckner by numbers
It used to be said that Bruckner composed the same symphony nine times, whereas, thanks to the comparative frequency of…
