Opera
Tilting at metronomes: Massenet's Don Quichotte opens at Grange Park Opera
To suggest that the ageing Jules Massenet identified himself with the title character of his Don Quichotte is nothing new…
Terry Gilliam turns to eye-watering excess for his staging of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini
Operas about artists are not rare. However — perhaps for obvious reasons — those artists tend to be musicians, singers,…
Dialogues des Carmélites brings out the best in Poulenc – and the Royal Opera House
Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites is an audacious work, much more so than many others that advertise their audacity. It deals…
WNO's production of Schoenberg's Moses und Aron is an overwhelming experience – but make sure you close your eyes
On paper, Moses und Aron might seem intractable and abstract: a 12-tone score setting a libretto that meditates on God,…
A Rosenkavalier without a heart ain’t much of a Rosenkavalier
In all its minute details, Der Rosenkavalier is rooted in a painstakingly stylised version of Rococo Vienna that, paradoxically, is…
Two Mimi-Rodolfos at Opera North who go from nought to frisky very believably
Purists might have winced at Opera North’s advertisement for its latest revival of La Bohème. ‘If you see one musical…
More woe for Oedipus
I had high hopes for Julian Anderson’s first opera, Thebans. Premièred at the Coliseum last Saturday, it promised to mark…
Khovanskygate is about the dreadfulness and possible glory of being Russian
Within the space of a few weeks we have had the rare chance of seeing the two great torsos of…
Britten’s worldwide reputation is enhanced in Lyon
One of the proudest boasts to come from Britten HQ in Aldeburgh during the composer’s anniversary last year was that…
Bryn Terfel lords it over 'Faust' magnificently
There’s a great deal to disapprove of in Gounod’s Faust. It breaks down a pillar of western literature and whisks…
Mixed results from the ENO and ROH in their seasonal away games
It’s been a spring tradition for several years now for English National Opera to present small-scale productions in various venues…
The snobbery and sweaty brows of watching opera in the cinema
I remain puzzled that, so far as I know, no daily or weekly paper carries reviews of the New York…
Handelian pleasures vs modern head-scratchers
Opera seems almost always to have been acutely concerned with its own future. These days this is most often manifested…
The Royal Opera House's Die Frau ohne Schatten – a dream solution to Strauss’s problem opera?
If ever an opera was weighed down by its creators’ joint ambition, it is Die Frau ohne Schatten. Richard Strauss…
Opera's fallen women
Opera’s grim fascination with ‘fallen women’ — as Welsh National Opera has called its latest mini-season — lies largely in…
ENO's Rodelinda: near-perfect singing, perfectly gimmicky direction
I wasn’t going to write about Handel’s Rodelinda, wasn’t even intending to go, but thanks to the kindness of the…
Why is Tippett's King Priam so difficult to love?
The difference between lovable, likable and admirable is perhaps more significant in the operatic world than in other artistic spheres…
Rigoletto in a gentleman's club
So it’s farewell to the fedoras and adieu to the jukebox. After 32 years of service, Jonathan Miller’s Little Italy…
Manon Lescaut is twerking — should we applaud or shudder?
Last seen clambering over the MDF wheelchair ramps of Laurent Pelly’s Royal Opera House production of Jules Massenet’s opéra comique,…
Don Giovanni at his unsexiest
Every time there’s a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni I have to ask the same question: why is this…
Your best YouTube operatic experience ever
Anyone who frequents the internet will have come across YouTube and soon learned that what may have been planned as…
Leipzig and Dresden are both staging Elektra. Which city wins?
Yet more performances of Elektra, Richard Strauss’s setting of Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s ramped-up, neurosis-riddled 1903 reworking of Sophocles, are unlikely…
Overrated Strauss vs underrated Gluck
This is the first of my more-or-less monthly columns, the idea of which is to report on operatic events other…
The state of opera today (it's not good)
I’ve been hoping that in this, the last of my weekly columns on opera, I would be able to strike…
Parsifal has anxiety, rage, near-madness — unfortunately the Royal Opera's version doesn't
Debussy’s description of the music of Parsifal as being ‘lit up from behind’ is famous; less so is Wagner’s own…
