The last unashamedly happy masterpiece: Haydn’s The Creation, at Ulster Hall, reviewed
Haydn’s The Creation is Paradise Lost without the Lost. True, the words aren’t exactly up there: translated into German by…
An old production that’s aged better than most: Royal Opera’s Turandot reviewed
Since its première in 1984, Andrei Serban’s production of Puccini’s Turandot has been revived 15 times at Covent Garden, not…
The opera’s a masterpiece but the production doesn’t quite come off: ENO’s The Dead City reviewed
English National Opera has arrived at the Dead City, and who, before Christmas, would have given odds that this new…
If you’re anywhere near Edinburgh, get a ticket: Scottish Opera’s Il trittico reviewed
It does no harm, once in a while, to assume that the creators of an opera actually know what they’re…
Electrifying: London Handel Festival’s In the Realms of Sorrow, at Stone Nest, reviewed
Hector Berlioz dismissed Handel as ‘that tub of pork and beer’ but it wasn’t always like that. Picture a younger,…
Dated and wasteful: Rusalka, at the Royal Opera House, reviewed
Careful what you wish for. There can be no definitive way to stage an opera, and it’s the critic’s duty…
The musical émigrés from Nazi-Europe who shaped postwar Britain
Halfway up the stairs to the Royal College of Music’s exhibition Music, Migration & Mobility is a map of NW3,…
Revival of the fittest
Opera North has begun 2023 with a couple of big revivals, and it’s always rewarding to call in on these…
Still ugly but worth catching for the chorus and orchestra: Royal Opera’s Tannhäuser reviewed
A classical concert programme is like a set menu, and for this palate the most tempting orchestral offering in the…
Stirring and sophisticated: RLPO, Chooi, Hindoyan, at the Philharmonic Hall, reviewed
Daniel Barenboim was supposed to perform with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra earlier this month. His recent health concerns made…
Do conductors have to be cruel to be good?
Richard Bratby on monstrous maestros
What makes a Christmas song Christmassy?
Temperature records for Los Angeles in the summer of 1945 are patchy, but 90 in the shade seems to have…
If Ravel’s Boléro makes you yawn, you’re not really listening
Only boring people are bored by Ravel’s Boléro. True, the composer – the slyest of wits – left his share…
The sonic equivalent of a Starbucks Eggnog Latte: ENO’s It’s a Wonderful Life reviewed
Whoosh! A digital starburst, a sweep of orchestral sound and the stage of the Coliseum is alive with dancing, whirling…
Hugely entertaining: Royal Opera’s Alcina reviewed
A hotel bellboy, the story goes, discovered George Best in a luxury suite surrounded by scantily clad lovelies and empty…
A towering achievement: ENO’s The Yeomen of the Guard reviewed
The screw may twist and the rack may turn: the Tower of London, in Jo Davies’s new production of The…
A total (and often gripping) theatrical experience: Scottish Opera’s Ainadamar reviewed
Do you remember Osvaldo Golijov? Two decades ago he was classical music’s Next Big Thing: a credible postmodernist with a…
Bold, self-assured reimagining of Monteverdi: Opera North's Orpheus reviewed
You wouldn’t like Tamerlano when he’s angry. ‘My heart seethes with rage,’ he sings, in Act III of Handel’s opera…
A miniature rite of a very English spring: a Vaughan Williams rediscovery in Liverpool
Imagine a folk dance without music. Actually, you don’t have to: poke about on YouTube and you’ll find footage from…
Grey, grey and more grey: Aida, at the Royal Opera House, reviewed
Grey. More grey. So very, very grey. That’s the main visual impression left by Robert Carsen’s new production of Verdi’s…
Why does opera always feel the need apologise for its plots?
Leos Janacek disliked long operas, and the first act of The Makropulos Affair is a masterclass in how to set…
More depravity, please: Salome, at the Royal Opera House, reviewed
The first night of the new season at Covent Garden was cancelled when the solemn news came through. The second…
Holds out huge promise for future seasons: If Opera's La Rondine reviewed
One swallow might not make a summer, but it certainly helps rounds the season off. ‘Perhaps, like the swallow, you…
