Eno
Often baffling but ultimately entertaining: Britten’s Paul Bunyan reviewed
‘I feel I have learned lots about what not to write for the theatre…’ There’s a prevailing idea that the…
Sexy hints of affluence with top notes of fascism: Grange Park’s Roméo et Juliette reviewed
Patrick Mason’s new production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette reminded me of something, but it took a while to work…
A fun evening that finished early enough for dinner – neither a given in Handel
On a sward of AstroTurf somewhere off Silicon Roundabout, Mountain Media is hosting its summer party and, well, it’s the…
A mischievous, daring production that produces the goods: Iolanthe reviewed
‘Welcome to our hearts again, Iolanthe!’ sings the fairy chorus in Gilbert and Sullivan’s fantasy-satire, and during this exuberant new…
Excellent but there’s too much larking about: ENO’s Rodelinda reviewed
ENO has revived Richard Jones’s production of Handel’s Rodelinda. It was warmly greeted on its first outing in 2014, though…
Pole position
Did you know that they used to make the Fiat 126 in the Eastern bloc? They did, apparently. There was…
Scottish Opera could have a hit on its hands with this new Mikado
You have to be quite silly to take Gilbert and Sullivan seriously. But even sillier not to. G&S is still…
I didn’t enjoy it but I couldn’t help loving it: Sunset Boulevard reviewed
Sunset Boulevard is a tale of fractured glory with Homeric dimensions. The movie presents Hollywood as a never-ending Trojan War…
In a world full of zombie new operas, thank god for Philip Glass’s Akhnaten
A mixed year so far for new opera. A few really dismal things have appeared from people who should know…
ENO must go
Last week Darren Henley, chief executive of Arts Council England, revealed that opera receives just under a fifth of the…
Long live ENO!
The three most moving, transporting death scenes in 19th-century opera all involve the respective heroines mounting a funeral pyre —…
What does it take to have someone declared dead? £480, for a start
Matters of life and death Lord Lucan is now officially presumed dead. How do you have someone declared dead? In…
Life-enhancing achievement: ENO's Magic Flute reviewed
Centre stage, there’s an industrial-looking black platform, secured by cables. The Three Ladies snap the unconscious Tamino on a mobile…
Has there ever been a better time to be a lover of Baroque opera?
Time was when early music was a 6 p.m. concert, Baroque began with Bach and ended with Corelli’s Christmas Concerto,…
That Force of Destiny isn’t a great evening is the fault of Verdi not ENO
The Force of Destiny, ENO’s latest offering to its ‘stakeholders’, as its audiences are now called thanks to Cressida Pollock,…
Please let's have more musicals like this Kiss Me, Kate at Opera North
Opera North’s new production of Cole Porter’s masterwork Kiss Me, Kate has been so widely and justly praised that I…
ENO’s Queen of Spades: I wanted to grab David Alden’s production by the neck and shake out its silly clutter
The opera director David Alden has never been one to tread the straight and narrow. Something kinky would emerge, I’m…
Dressing up for the opera is not elitist
It’s June, and the country-house summer opera festivals are now in full swing. Glyndebourne, which opened the season last month,…
Was Glyndebourne right to revive Donizetti’s Poliuto? No, says Michael Tanner
It’s been a busy operatic week, with a nearly great concert performance of Parsifal in Birmingham on Sunday (reviewed by…
Do you see me laughing? Mike Leigh’s Pirates of Penzance at the ENO reviewed
Forget the pollsters and political pundits — English National Opera called it first and called it Right when it programmed…
ENO's Between Worlds at the Barbican reviewed: too respectful
This week, some 200 years since Goya’s ‘The Disasters of War’, almost 80 years after Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, and over 50…
Blunt and bloody: ENO's Sweeney Todd reviewed
A wicked deception is sprung in the opening moments of this New York-originated concert staging of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh…
Miriam Gross’s diary: Why use Freud and Kurt Weill to promote Wagner?
Last week I went to the exhilarating English National Opera production of Wagner’s The Mastersingers — five hours of wonderful…
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…
You can’t force low-income people to go to an art gallery or the theatre if they don’t want to
I went last week to see the justly praised production of Wagner’s The Mastersingers at English National Opera, and I…
