Reviews
The Guardian view on the ‘yellowface’ casting row: classical music has a diversity problem | Editorial
The pulling of Peter Eötvös’s opera The Golden Dragon from the Hackney Empire must provoke some tough thinking The Hackney Empire in London announced last week that it had cancelled a performance of an opera that had come under fire from members of Britain’s east...
Les Vêpres Siciliennes review – an electrifying night at the Opéra
Royal Opera House, London Stefan Herheim’s take on Verdi is restless, lurid and saturated with the opulence of the 19th-century Parisian opera house to which the action is relocated There is – to risk sounding obtuse – an awful lot of opera in Stefan Herheim’s take on...
Review: The Elixir of Love at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Oct. 11 2017
Smalltown Canada setting Donizetti’s rustic melodramma giocoso (comic opera) The Elixir of Love returned to the Canadian Opera Company on October 11 for the first time since 1999, in a new-to-Toronto production by American director James Robinson. The action has been...
The Devil Came Up to Boston for Cerise Lim Jacobs’ New Opera, “REV. 23”
REVIEW of REV. 23, a new comic opera that sees beyond the End of Days, conceived and written by Cerise Lim Jacobs, with a score by Julian Wachner; performed September 29, September 30, and October 1, 2017 at Boston’s John Hancock Hall; viewed here September 30 and...
From the House of the Dead review – Welsh National Opera’s landmark staging demands to be heard
Millennium Centre, Cardiff Welsh National Opera’s revival brings David Pountney’s 1982 version back to grim and glorious life and restores Janáček’s original musical vision Janáček’s adaptation of Dostoevsky’s partly autobiographical novel, set in a Siberian prison...
Giulio Cesare and Dardanus review – ETO update Handel and make Rameau feel contemporary
Hackney Empire, London English Touring Opera’s ambitious autumn programme features two baroque operas that both deal with sex and war and the private and the political. English Touring Opera’s autumn season centres on two great baroque works, Handel’s Giulio Cesare...
Così fan tutte review – Nicholas Hytner’s irresistible production takes a bow
Glyndebourne, Lewes Hytner’s sunny, unironic staging of Mozart’s problematic comedy – about to tour for a final time – is one of the most intelligent and insightful around Glyndebourne has always honoured Mozart as its patron saint. That’s good for Glyndebourne and,...
The Golden Dragon; Opera: Passion, Power and Politics – review
Birmingham Rep; V&A, London Peter Eötvös’s tragicomic opera about a Chinese immigrant worker cuts to the quick in Music Theatre Wales’s visceral production. At the V&A, hold on to your headphones… At first sight a jaunty skit on life in a Chinese restaurant –...
Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice at Lyric Opera of Chicago
The roles of Orphée, Eurydice, and Amour are sung by Dmitry Korchak, Adrianna Chuchman, and Lauren Snouffer. Dance sequences are performed by members of the Joffrey Ballet. The Lyric Opera Orchestra is conducted by Harry Bicket, while the Lyric Opera Chorus has been...
Review: Arabella at Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Oct. 5 2017
Richard Strauss’s Arabella (1933) had its triumphant Canadian premiere last night, opening the Canadian Opera Company’s 17/18 season. It is one of those operas that comes saddled with a ‘reputation,' often viewed as less than top drawer Strauss; hindered by creaky...
Michelle DeYoung, Mahler Symphony no 3 London
The concert was live streamed worldwide, an indication of just how important this concert was, for it marks the Philharmonia's 34-year relationship with Salonen. I missed the first concert in 1983 when a very young Salonen substituted at a few days’ notice. The score...
Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande CD review – luxury casting and vivid performances under Rattle and Sellars
Kozena/Fink/Gerhaher/Finley/Selig/LSO/LSC/Rattle LSO Live The LSO’s January 2016 performances of Debussy’s opera at the Barbican in London, conducted by Simon Rattle and semi-staged by Peter Sellars, have been beautifully transferred to CD, and the result is a credit...