The joy of Franck’s Symphony in D Minor: BBCSO/Gabel, at the Proms, reviewed
In the Rodgers and Hart musical On Your Toes, a Broadway hoofer is forced to work at a community college,…
An electrifying, immersive thrill: Scottish Opera's Candide reviewed
The first part of the adventure was getting there. Out of the subway, past the tower blocks and under the…
A classic in the making: Glyndebourne's Poulenc double bill reviewed
One morning in the 20th century, Thérèse wakes up next to her husband and announces that she’s a feminist. Hubby,…
Convincing performances and unexpected sounds: Opera Holland Park's Delius/Puccini double bill reviewed
Delius and Puccini: how’s that for an operatic odd couple? Delius, that most faded of British masters, now remembered largely…
With everything working properly, this would have been a lot of fun: Grange Park's La Gioconda reviewed
There are composers who are known for a single opera, and there are operas that are known for only a…
A bleeding, inch-thick hunk of verismo sirloin: Royal Opera's Cav and Pag reviewed
One legacy of lockdown in the classical music world has been the sheer length of the 21-22 season. In a…
Had the air of a Blue Peter Christmas special: Grange Festival's The Yeomen of the Guard reviewed
The Yeomen of the Guard has been called the ‘English Meistersinger’ but the more you think about that, the dafter…
A thoroughly enjoyable grand old heap of nothing: The Excursions of Mr Broucek reviewed
Sir David Pountney, it appears, has been to Prague. He’s booked himself a mini-break, he’s EasyJetted out, and after (one…
The opera that wouldn’t die
Richard Bratby on the resurrection of wunderkind Erich Korngold’s long-neglected masterpiece
A completely satisfying operatic experience: Opera North’s Parsifal reviewed
When Parsifal finally returns to Montsalvat, it’s Good Friday. He’s trodden the path of suffering but now the sun is…
Serves Ethel Smyth's opera magnificently: Glyndebourne's The Wreckers reviewed
You’ve got to hand it to Dame Ethel Smyth. Working in an era when to be a British composer implied…
Claude Vivier ought to be a modern classic. Why isn't he?
April is the cruellest month, but May is shaping up quite pleasantly and the daylight streamed in through the east…
Even Nelsons’s miscalculations are fascinating: Leipzig Gewandhaus/Andris Nelsons, at the Barbican, reviewed
Imagine growing up with a whole orchestra as your plaything. Richard Strauss’s father was the principal horn of the Munich…
Too affectionate, not enough cruelty: Don Pasquale, at the Royal Opera House, reviewed
There are many things to enjoy in the Royal Opera’s revival of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, but perhaps the most surprising…
A fine cast, superbly conducted – just don't overthink the production: Royal Opera's Lohengrin reviewed
To be a Wagnerite is to enter the theatre in a state of paranoia. Mainstream culture has decided that Wagner…
Igor Levit deserved his standing ovation; Shostakovich, even more so
Music and politics don’t mix, runs the platitude. Looks a bit tattered now, doesn’t it? For Soviet musicians, of course,…
A spirited attempt to fix a show that’s never really flown: Utopia, Limited reviewed
Utopia, Limited (1893) is a rare bird, and one that every Gilbert and Sullivan completist simply has to bag. The…
Pitch-black satire drenched in an atmosphere of compelling unease: ETO's Golden Cockerel reviewed
Blame it on Serge Diaghilev. Rimsky-Korsakov died in 1908 and never saw the première of his last opera, The Golden…
Comes so close to greatness but succumbs to prejudice: Royal Opera's Peter Grimes reviewed
No question, the Royal Opera is on a roll. Just look at the cast list alone for Deborah Warner’s new…
Spot-on in almost every way: Scottish Opera's A Midsummer Night’s Dream reviewed
Scottish Opera’s new production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream seems to open in midwinter. Snow falls, fairies hurl snowballs…
Astonishing, if unnecessary, grandstanding: Barbara Hannigan's La voix humaine reviewed
I think it was when she leaned forward and balanced on one leg that Barbara Hannigan jumped the shark. It…
Deserves to become an ENO staple: The Cunning Little Vixen reviewed
Spoiler alert. The last words in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen come from a child playing a frog. The story…
Old-school excess, star power and spectacle: Royal Opera's Tosca reviewed
London felt like its old self on Friday night. Possibly it was just me; when you visit the capital once…
Turns Handel into a Netflix thriller: Royal Opera's Theodora reviewed
The Royal Opera has come over all baroque. In the Linbury Theatre, they’re hosting Irish National Opera’s production of Vivaldi’s…
Ralph Vaughan Williams: modernist master
He is caricatured as a populist and purveyor of ‘folky-wolky’ melodies, says Richard Bratby, but Vaughan Williams was a modernist master of uncompromising originality
