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
Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, Royal Opera House, 2.12.17 Damiano Michieletto’s production of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana with Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci looks like becoming one of Covent...Read More
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
Lucia di Lammermoor, Royal Opera House, 8.11.17 Donizetti composed his Scottish tragedy nearly two centuries ago, yet real life has only recently caught up with it. Lucia loves Edgardo, but is ...Read More
La tragédie de Carmen, Wilton’s Music Hall, London Wilton’s Music Hall is a charming and perfectly-preserved remnant of London’s historic East End, and it’s still serving the purpose f...Read More
Aida, Coliseum An opera house needs a story to launch the season, and ENO had three. First, their chief executive had suddenly announced her premature departure. Second, Aida would be the first chance...Read More
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
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
Why should the sound of a consort of four viols be more moving than that of a string quartet? It goes against all logic. With its flat back, and played like a Middle-Eastern spike-fiddle, the v...Read More
A youth opera about adolescent alienation? We’ve watched too many of them founder in their own plodding worthiness, and the heart sank at the prospect of yet another, particularly one travelling und...Read More