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Review: PETER GRIMES, London Coliseum
Deftly balances psychological thrill with morality as murky as the North Sea...
Review: LA FORZA DEL DESTINO, Royal Opera House
Sondra Radvanovsky, Brian Jagde and Etienne Dupuis lead a wonderful cast and orchestra in a near-overwhelming production that fully justifies its four hours running time...
Review: THE MIKADO, Grimeborn, Arcola Theatre
It maintains the opera’s timeless charm, strong wit, and with a cast that never takes itself seriously, leads to an evening that has the audience roaring with laughter....
Review: Lise Davidsen's Recital at the Met will be a Hard Act for a DEAD MAN to Follow
The Metropolitan Opera somehow managed to upstage itself on Thursday, when it offered audiences a spectacular recital by Norwegian soprano Lisa Davidsen, with her excellent musical partner James Baillieu, on piano, 12 days before the company’s official opening night (the Jake Heggie-Terrence McNal...
Review: Cape Town Opera's TOSCA is Lush and Transportive
What did our critic think of TOSCA at Cape Town Opera?...
Review: DAS RHEINGOLD, Royal Opera House
Given his political radicalism and fervent romanticism, it is more than fair to wonder if Richard Wagner would be partial to Just Stop Oil. Sporting his iconic beret, would he, if he were around today, brandish banners and block cars on the M1? Barrie Kosky may think so. He thrusts Wagner’s ecolog...
Review: TURANDOT, Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
The thrill of operatic voices singing up close and personal in a radical re-interpretation of an opera ripe for bringing into the 21st century...
Review: RAGTIME at Union Avenue Opera
When the musical Ragtime was produced for Broadway in 1998 it was a colossal, big-budget show. It cost some ten million dollars. What in the world were the folks at tiny little Union Avenue Opera thinking when they decided to include this show in their twenty-ninth season? Ragtime, the musical...
Review: DAS RHEINGOLD at McCaw Hall
The outstanding cast and provocative production, merged with Wagner’s indisputably monumental music and drama, made this Rheingold a de rigueur happening...
Review: LOYOLA, Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
Beautifully sung South American opera flawed a little by its overpowering religious messaging....
Review: TROUBLE IN TAHITI, Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
Boutique opera now 72 years old but could have been written yesterday in terms of its music, its themes and its relevance, performed with verve and confidence...
Review: RUDDIGORE, Opera Holland Park
Super show, a little slow at first, but blossoming into an escapist entertainment that can be enjoyed as much in the 2020s as it was in the 1880s...
Review: In Saint-Saens' HENRI VIII, the King Has the Title but the Queens Are in Charge at Bard Festival
Donizetti’s so-called “Tudor Trilogy”--ANNA BOLENA, MARIA STUARDA and ROBERTO DEVEREUX (aka, “the one about Elizabeth I”)--suddenly has some competition on British history in opera: Camille Saint-Saens' HENRI VIII....
Review: DON PASQUALE at Union Avenue Opera
Scott Schoonover and his Union Avenue Opera have a long history (now twenty-nine years) of gathering remarkable operatic voices. Their current production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale has voices that are astonishingly beautiful! It’s a work you should not miss! Two brilliant young stars—Ch...
Review: NO FOR AN ANSWER, Grimeborn, Arcola Theatre
A strong score, neat production by Mehmet Ergen and an excellent cast make it worth a watch, even if it has several plot-related issues...
Review: ITCH, Opera Holland Park
Jonathan Dove's music underpins and enhances the tale of a teen suddenly thrust into a world of corporate power and environmental exploitation...
Review: Crutchfield's Teatro Nuovo Turns Fairy Godmother as CRISPINO Returns to New York
The famed playwright and wit George S. Kaufman once said, “Satire is what closes on Saturday night.” One can only imagine what Kaufman--whose many credits include YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU, as well as the source of Sondheim’s MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, which is circling Broadway for a return ...
Review: PROM 11: HORRIBLE HISTORIES - 'ORRIBLE OPERA, Royal Albert Hall
Prom 11: Horrible Histories ‘Orrible Opera is a delightful show that will amuse audiences of all ages while making opera more approachable....
Review: Splendid Donizetti Rarity POLIUTO Showed Its Great Bones via Crutchfield's Teatro Nuovo
Usually, when long-neglected works somehow find their way to the forefront, we find there’s a pretty good reason for the lack of interest. Happily for us, this does not apply to Donizetti’s POLIUTO, which Will Crutchfield’s Teatro Nuovo performed last weekend at Montclair State’s Kasser Thea...
Review: THE TURN OF THE SCREW at Union Avenue Opera
“The Turn of the Screw,” a deft psychological exploration of the dimensions of horror and the human mind. UAO’s successful staging of the work appropriately raised more questions than it answered, about danger, fear, the limits of human perception, and a host of other commonplaces in horror....
Review: CINDERELLA (CENDRILLON) at Artscape Opera House Is a Magical Blend of Opera, Ballet and Dialogue
Everyone has been acquainted with the story of CINDERELLA in some way, shape or form. What not everyone has experienced is this timeless tale told through a mixture of opera, ballet and acting. Indeed, this self-aware adaptation of Pauline Viardot’s chamber opera CINDERELLA (CENDRILLON), presented...
Review: WOMAN AT POINT ZERO, Royal Opera House
Unique production defies easy categorisation, but thrills and appals to live long in the memory...
Review: EVEREST, Barbican Theatre
An atmospheric story of a group of trapped explorers at the mercy of mother nature, the UK premiere of Joby Talbot’s Everest has a chillingly eerie resonance....
Review: WERTHER, Royal Opera House
A lacklustre central performance shifts the focus towards Charlotte's tragedy instead of Werther's....
Review: Madrid's Teatro Real Brings Out the Charms of Rossini's TURCO IN ITALIA with Oropesa
As I sat down to write about the delightful recent performance I heard of Rossini’s IL TURCO IN ITALIA at Madrid’s Teatro Real, with soprano Lisette Ororpesa in a charming new production by Laurence Pelly, I went to Spotify to see what kind of recordings were around. I was surprised to find more...
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