Don Giovanni
Children have the Proms. Grown-ups head to Salzburg. Snob summer
Salzburg Festival doesn’t mess about. The offerings this year include an adaptation of Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain in Lithuanian, a…
My night with Rod Liddle
‘I was 12 when I first got laid.’ ‘Where was that?’ ‘In Middlesbrough.’ ‘How the hell did you get lucky…
The final scenes are a knockout: Glyndebourne’s Don Giovanni reviewed
Are you supposed to laugh at the end of Don Giovanni? Audiences often do, and they did at the end…
More Grace Kelly than Grace Jones: Welsh National Opera’s Carmen reviewed
How do you take your Carmen? Sun-drenched exotic fantasy with a side order of castanets, or cool and gritty, sour…
Grimes triumphant
‘Peter Grimes!’ Ranked high above us in the Usher Hall — a mob smelling blood, hot for the kill —…
The singing made me seasick: ETO’s Don Giovanni reviewed
One of these days I will probably see a production of Don Giovanni set in a research station in the…
Even a perfect opera such as Don Giovanni improves with a good red
End of season is always bittersweet, the melting snows a bit like autumn leaves. But the days are longer and…
ENO's Indian Queen reviewed: Peter Sellars's bold new production needs editing
When is an opera not an opera? How much can you strip and peel away, or extend and graft on…
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…
Taki: Come on then Saatchi, name a time and place. I'm serious, are you?
OK, folks. We’ve had enough of Hollande and his rather silly antics, although I do understand the man. Ever younger…
