Reviews
Cooperstown and the Hood
As one of opera’s most important contemporary leaders and contributors, Artistic and General Director Francesca Zambello has directed in the world’s most prestigious opera houses. That she personally brings her same considerable gifts and artistry to bear with Robin...
Glimmerglass Oklahoma: Yeow!
Stay out of its way. That’s not quite fair since Ms. Smith brought a number of fresh pieces of business into play. This was hardly a dusty “homage.” But mostly, she honored the timeless appeal and superb craftsmanship of the masters, and facilitated a fast-paced,...
An Invitation to Travel: Christiane Karg and Malcolm Martineau at the Proms
This was Karg’s Proms debut, and many of the songs performed - by Reynaldo Hahn, Charles Koechlin, Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc - were receiving their first performance at the Proms, although Karg’s programme is itself quite well-travelled: she’s performed...
Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder at the Proms – Sir Simon Rattle
No wonder tickets almost sold out as soon as they went on sale. Everyone in town seemed to be there. Thomas Quasthoff sat in the coffee shop, holding court with friends and fans. Simon Rattle got cheered when he came in sight on the stage, still in street clothes, by...
Le Siège de Corinthe in Pesaro
We were all eager participants, harangued lengthily and forcibly by a high priest of the Greeks to accept martyrdom. Some of us were actually absorbed into the crowds of the condemned citizens of Corinth transfixed by the priest’s ecstatic vision of freedom....
Dunedin Consort perform Bach’s St John Passion at the Proms
For the climax of the BBC Proms celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Butt and the Dunedin Consort performed Bach's St John Passion at the Royal Albert Hall in the context of Lutheran Vespers, with organist Stephen Farr performing chorale preludes...
Macbeth review – high camp, dark drama and more than a hint of Game of Thrones
Festival theatre, Edinburgh This new production from Teatro Regio Torino has a solid cast and striking imagery backed by a richly nuanced account of Verdi’s score Verdi’s take on the Scottish play was the first opera to be performed at the inaugural Edinburgh...
Collision: Spectra Ensemble at the Arcola Theatre
The conspiracy theorists are ever vigilant for signs of impending apocalypse. Only a few days ago, a NASA tweet about a solar eclipse due to occur later this month triggered declarations from evangelical Christians that humanity will be wiped out by the event. Given...
Joshua Bell offers Hispanic headiness at the Proms
But, the ‘Spain’ of Debussy’s Iberia or Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole and L'Heure espagnole was essentially an ‘exoticised’ musical land. Ravel’s mother may have been of Basque origin but Debussy’s experience of the country amounted to a brief day-trip to San Sebastian,...
John Joubert’s Jane Eyre
Composers tend to steer clear of sprawling nineteenth-century tomes, with their vast casts of characters and complex engagement with contemporary social concerns. As far as I know, no-one has yet been brave, or foolhardy, enough to turn Vanity Fair or À la recherche...
Hibiki: a European premiere by Mark-Anthony Turnage at the Proms
At this Proms performance, the first outside Japan, soloists soprano Sally Matthews and mezzo-soprano Mihoko Fujimura were joined by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Finchley Children’s Music Group and the New London Children’s Choir under the baton of Kazushi Ozo, who...
Don Giovanni review – Ivan Fischer’s singular vision leaves his singers in limbo
Festival theatre, Edinburgh Fischer is a conductor with great things to say about Mozart but this staged concert performance fails to do justice to the opera’s drama, white-painted extras notwithstanding When is a performance of an opera in the theatre not a...