Michael Tanner

New kid on the block

22 July 2017 9:00 am

The new Grange Park Opera at Horsley is amazing, as everyone who visits it must agree. In less than a…

Gustav Mahler

8 July 2017 9:00 am

When I began listening to music seriously, in about 1950, I had read about Mahler but wasn’t able to hear…

Carry on camping: Michael Spyres as Mitridate in Mitridate, re di Ponto

Dressed to thrill

8 July 2017 9:00 am

Mitridate, re di Ponto was Mozart’s fifth opera, written and first produced when he was 14 years old. Absolutely amazing.…

Twin peaks

24 June 2017 9:00 am

In an essay called ‘Wagner’s fluids’, Susan Sontag concludes, ‘The depth and grandeur of feeling of which Wagner is capable…

Love Handel: Christine Rice (Juno), Heidi Stober (Semele) and Jurgita Adamonyte (Ino) in Semele at Garsington

Myths and morals

10 June 2017 9:00 am

Handel’s Semele, one of the most enjoyable operas (or opera-oratorio, if you insist) in the repertoire, is, in its upshot,…

Death wish

27 May 2017 9:00 am

Anyone who thinks they have experienced absolute boredom, or even doubts that such a state can exist, should go to…

Mild things

13 May 2017 9:00 am

English Touring Opera is playing safe this spring, with Tosca and Patience, and was rewarded, in Cambridge at least, with…

The finest Wotan around: Latvian bass-baritone Egils Silins

Beyond comprehension

6 May 2017 9:00 am

The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s ‘Belief and Beyond Belief’ season is drawing to a close, without making it in any degree…

Fallen angel

29 April 2017 9:00 am

The Adèsives were out in force at Covent Garden last Monday for the UK première of their hero’s third opera,…

Take a bow

22 April 2017 9:00 am

Monteverdi 450 — the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists’ tour of his three operas to 33 cities across two…

Fatal distraction

18 March 2017 9:00 am

I don’t think that I have left a theatre many times feeling as depressed and irritated as after the Royal…

Cold comfort: Zach Roberts in Rory Kinnear’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’ at ENO

Statue-esque

4 March 2017 9:00 am

Why set a supremely great play to music? The Winter’s Tale, the play of Shakespeare’s that I love most, has…

Cold comfort: Zach Roberts in Rory Kinnear’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’ at ENO

Statue-esque

2 March 2017 3:00 pm

Why set a supremely great play to music? The Winter’s Tale, the play of Shakespeare’s that I love most, has…

Cold comfort: Zach Roberts in Rory Kinnear’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’ at ENO

Statue-esque

2 March 2017 3:00 pm

Why set a supremely great play to music? The Winter’s Tale, the play of Shakespeare’s that I love most, has…

Tough love

25 February 2017 9:00 am

Frank Martin is one of those composers whose work seems to survive only by virtue of constantly renewed neglect. His…

Tough love

23 February 2017 3:00 pm

Frank Martin is one of those composers whose work seems to survive only by virtue of constantly renewed neglect. His…

Tough love

23 February 2017 3:00 pm

Frank Martin is one of those composers whose work seems to survive only by virtue of constantly renewed neglect. His…

Tough love

23 February 2017 3:00 pm

Frank Martin is one of those composers whose work seems to survive only by virtue of constantly renewed neglect. His…

A whirlwind life

18 February 2017 9:00 am

The dust cover features one of the best-known caricatures of Richard Wagner, his enormous head in this version opened like…

A whirlwind life

16 February 2017 3:00 pm

The dust cover features one of the best-known caricatures of Richard Wagner, his enormous head in this version opened like…

Losing the plot

11 February 2017 9:00 am

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

9 February 2017 3:00 pm

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

9 February 2017 3:00 pm

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

28 January 2017 9:00 am

It used to be said that Bruckner composed the same symphony nine times, whereas, thanks to the comparative frequency of…

Bruckner by numbers

26 January 2017 3:00 pm

It used to be said that Bruckner composed the same symphony nine times, whereas, thanks to the comparative frequency of…