Boris Godunov, Royal Opera House, ★★★★★ Michael Church Modest Musorgsky’s first and greatest opera was attemptedly rewritten by many hands – including Rimsky-Korsakov’s – b...Read More
Boris Godunov, Royal Opera House When the curtain rises on Boris Godunov, the gaudily-painted spinning-top which adorns it turns out to be a giant version of the toy with which a small boy in a white...Read More
Katya Kabanova, Royal Opera House It never rains but it pours: three productions of Janacek’s Katya Kabanova running in the same week – excellent ones from Scottish Opera and Welsh National O...Read More
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
Semele, Royal Festival Hall, 18.10.17 I’ve seen quite a few stage productions of Handel’s Semele, but I can’t remember one as dramatic as the one I’ve just heard by the Orchestra of the Age of...Read More