The Queen of Spades, Royal Opera House, London When is a libretto not a libretto? When it falls into the hands of Stefan Herheim. For this Norwegian director, an opera is something out of which he ma...Read More
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
Don Giovanni, Royal Opera House, London Some revivals save shows, others only serve to highlight their inherent weaknesses. Richard Jones’s replacement for John Copley’s much-loved Covent Garden B...Read More
Lohengrin, Royal Opera House, London Just have faith in our love, says Elsa’s white knight after his arrival in a boat pulled by a swan, making it a condition of matrimony that she should never ask ...Read More
Lessons in Love and Violence, Royal Opera House George Benjamin’s last opera, Written on Skin, has had such glittering international success – notching up more productions per year than Bri...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
Macbeth, Royal Opera House Michael Church After two of the most abysmal new productions I have ever seen – From the House of the Dead at Covent Garden, and La traviata at the Coliseum – a revival ...Read More
From the House of the Dead, Royal Opera House, 7.3.18 Dostoevsky’s novel From the House of the Dead was based on his searing experiences in a Siberian prison. Janacek’s opera faithfully fol...Read More
The Return of Ulysses, Roundhouse, 9.1.18 Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria is an ecstatically melodious succession of recitatives, duets, and arias telling of war, exile, love, and reven...Read More
Salome, Royal Opera House, 10.1.18 Richard Strauss based his Salome on Oscar Wilde’s play (written in French and banned in Britain) which turned on two taboo sexual obsessions: Herod’s for ...Read More