Luisa Miller, English National Opera It gives me no pleasure to report that English National Opera, which last year produced a record number of turkeys, has kicked off this year with yet another one. ...Read More
Otello, Royal Opera House While English National Opera, under its current leadership, produces nothing but flops, the Royal Opera remains splendidly on track. Hot on the heels of David McVicar’s s...Read More
Last Prom, Royal Albert Hall In the ancient past, four years ago, people going to the Last Prom had a fairly settled sense of how to deal with it. Left-wingers could laugh at the programme’s jingois...Read More
Un ballo in maschera/Manon Lescaut; Opera Holland Park, London Holland Park’s mini-Glyndebourne is now open for business, and in Rodula Gaitanou’s production of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera it ...Read More
La forza del destino, Royal Opera House It’s always news when Anna Netrebko or Jonas Kaufmann grace the stage, and doubly so when they appear together: breath is bated not only over whether these s...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
La traviata, Coliseum, London As nights at the opera go, this was a strange one. By the end of Act One I was eager to leave, and I felt pretty much the same about Act Two, but Act Three, which must co...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