Opera
Country pleasures
The English weren’t the first cowpat composers. Jean-Philippe Rameau raised the art of frolicking in the fields to such heights…
Blowing the bloody doors off
As we waited for curtain-up on Scottish Opera’s new production of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle a member of staff walked out…
Death becomes her
Opera is littered with the bodies of abandoned women. Step over Dido and Gilda, and you’ll still stumble into Donna…
Denial has rarely looked so good
Ceci n’est pas une Partenope. Forget the warring classical kingdoms of Naples and Cumae: this is surrealist Paris in the…
Fatal distraction
I don’t think that I have left a theatre many times feeling as depressed and irritated as after the Royal…
Scottish power
‘Perhaps in this world nothing ever happens without purpose,’ sings old, blind King Arkel in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and…
Scottish power
‘Perhaps in this world nothing ever happens without purpose,’ sings old, blind King Arkel in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and…
Scottish power
‘Perhaps in this world nothing ever happens without purpose,’ sings old, blind King Arkel in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and…
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…
British sea power
The story so far: in 1986 English National Opera hired Jonathan Miller to direct Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. The…
British sea power
The story so far: in 1986 English National Opera hired Jonathan Miller to direct Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. The…
British sea power
The story so far: in 1986 English National Opera hired Jonathan Miller to direct Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. The…
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…
Notes on a scandal
Kids: who’d have them? Certainly no one who has ever been to the opera. If they’re not murdering you, they’re…
Notes on a scandal
Kids: who’d have them? Certainly no one who has ever been to the opera. If they’re not murdering you, they’re…
Notes on a scandal
Kids: who’d have them? Certainly no one who has ever been to the opera. If they’re not murdering you, they’re…
Snow blindness
Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden has not received a professional staging in the UK for 60 years. Think about that for…
