Month: July 2024
Proms 2024Prom 6/7: Verdi’s Requiem/Jakub Józef Orliński review
Two Proms in one evening may seem daunting but makes perfect sense if visiting London and only wishing to stay overnight. This is, of course, even more feasible when each is less than two hours duration. Under the baton of Ryan Bancroft, the principal conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and with the massed…
A magestic Walküre as up close and personal as it could possibly get
Wagner at Longborough really needs to be experienced as it is almost impossible to describe. But I will try. It crossed my mind, sitting so close to the singers and orchestra in the small space with a correspondingly small stage, it felt a little like being in a village hall, not even as big as…
Fun and frivolity at Garsington Opera for Verdi’s Giorno di Regno
**** Well, I never. A staging of a comedic opera that is actually funny. Purists may argue Verdi’s Un Giorno di Regno, owes more to Donizetti or Rossini but who cares? In this delightful new staging by Christopher Alden for Garsington Opera we are given a contemporary arms dealer’s office Kelbar Defence Ltd. rather than…
Not much magic on this Island Of Dreams, Grange Park Opera
** Anthony Bolton quite rightly beamed with pride as he was generously received at his curtain call as composer of this new work receiving its premier (and one of two performances) at Grange Park Opera. The response for the production team including director David Pountney was rather more muted. The singers and Gascoigne Orchestra conductor…
MidSummer Night’s Dream psychobabble at Garsington Opera
*** Psychobabble rather than magic takes over in Netia Jones’s new staging of the ever-popular Britten and Pears’s version of the Shakespeare play, and the result is a missed opportunity. Why so? Because the work is being staged at the fabulous Garsington Opera pavilion which is all glass and other directors have made great use…