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Tag: Covent Garden

A powerful and convincing Butterfly at the ROH

Posted on June 15, 2022June 16, 2022 by Michael Church
Madama Butterfly Royal Opera House, London, ★★★★ Nobody could accuse Covent Garden of backwardness in virtue-signalling. They recently announced plans for trigger-warnings when murder, rape, a... Read More

The ROH streams, but the outlook for musicians is dire

Posted on June 15, 2020June 18, 2020 by Michael Church
Musicians are at a precipice – but does the government care? Given a fanatical Brexiteer cabinet fixated on impossible dreams, and  some stunningly inadequate ministers in charge of important a... Read More

McVicar’s evergreen Flute

Posted on November 2, 2019November 5, 2019 by Michael Church
Die Zauberflöte, Royal Opera House, London While ENO produces one turkey after another, Covent Garden continues to fly the flag. It has just brought back David McVicar’s production of Die Zauberfl... Read More

Alagna’s 100th ROH appearance: fine, but overshadowed by Radvanovsky

Posted on May 21, 2019May 24, 2019 by Michael Church
Andrea Chenier, Royal Opera House In making the title role of Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier the vehicle for his hundredth Covent Garden appearance, Roberto Alagna has made a wise choice. As a ... Read More

Hansel und Gretel – in need of a plot

Posted on December 14, 2018December 17, 2018 by Michael Church
Hansel und Gretel, Royal Opera House The popularity of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel goes up and down like a yo-yo. After its premiere – conducted by Richard Strauss, who admired ... Read More

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk – Richard Jones’s superb version

Posted on April 13, 2018June 7, 2018 by Michael Church
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Royal Opera House   Like Thomas Hardy with his condemned Tess – ‘a pure woman’ – Dmitry Shostakovich saw the merchant’s wife Katerina Ismailova, aka his double-... Read More

The world according to Barrie Kosky

Posted on February 4, 2018February 5, 2018 by Michael Church
  Opera moves with the times: it’s no surprise that a Carmen in tune with the #metoo movement should open in Florence, with the exasperated heroine shooting her jealous lover dead. But that’s... Read More

Semiramide at Covent Garden

Posted on November 23, 2017November 23, 2017 by Michael Church
Semiramide, Royal Opera House, 22.11.17   Rossini’s Semiramide premiered in Venice in 1823, and throughout the nineteenth century it was a popular vehicle for great voices, but in the twentieth... Read More

En passant: Graham Vick’s ‘Mitridate’ – still original after 26 years… and the evergreen Turandot… and an interesting Proms experiment

Posted on June 27, 2017September 26, 2017 by Michael Church
Mitridate, re di Ponto, Royal Opera house, London   Nobody ever talks about Graham Vick’s 26-year-old production of Mitridate, re di Ponto – it seemed to have sunk without trace – but Coven... Read More

En passant: ROH Don Carlo…Two Glyndebourne hits…David Helfgott returns…A perfect Figaro at Garsington…

Posted on May 13, 2017June 5, 2017 by Michael Church
Don Carlo, Covent Garden, 12.5.17 With its God-given melodies, ravishing orchestration, and intricate but whizzing plot, Verdi’s Don Carlo ticks all the boxes, including that of topicality 150 years... Read More

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