Year: 2025
Holland Park’s Wagnerian maiden voyage with The Flying Dutchman
**** Opera Holland Park’s choice of The Flying Dutchman for its first foray into the Wagnerian world (or cult) is both inspired and courageous. Inspired as it is Wagner’s most accessible opera (and short). Courageous as it demands vast amounts of drama, and much of that comes from the orchestra which has to be limited…
Wagner’s dynastic dystopia Wahnfried UK premier at Longborough
*** This is a no-holds barred nightmare of red velvet and megalomania. It is the story of what happens to a family after the death of its head, its Master, Richard Wagner, in attempting to maintain and fulfil his legacy against a backdrop of the darkest days in modern European history. At its core is…
Madama Butterfly at the New Theatre, Cardiff
With directors jostling to reinterpret Puccini, Ellen Kent’s Madama Butterfly at the New Theatre, Cardiff was a breath of fresh air—traditional, heartfelt, and free of gimmickry. At a time when many stagings feel the need to modernise, deconstruct, or appease contemporary anxieties, Kent offers something increasingly rare: an unembellished, faithful telling that allows Puccini’s haunting…
Panig! Attack!!
WNO Youth Opera New Theatre, Cardiff Hats off to the large (very) number of young people who formed two casts to give two polished performances of this feelgood show. The bilingual production takes the trope of two different groups who have been separated, try to a come together, are divided by what they see as…
Peter Grimes, Welsh National Opera
I start with a confession: I am no longer a Britten virgin. Despite all my years of going to WNO productions I had never seen a Britten, not even their recently acclaimed Death in Venice. In part this was because Britten did not appeal to me, so I was both curious and trepidatious to see…
Marriage of Figaro, Welsh National Opera
The beautiful thing about The Marriage of Figaro is that, a couple centuries after it was written, it still holds up. Indeed – and differently from many other opera comedies, whose hijinks can feel forced and outdated to a contemporary audience – it can easily read as commentary on a number of topics our modern sensitivities are…
Opera Favourites At The Movies, Welsh National Opera
Opera Favourites At The Movies, WNO It is time for a concert showcase at the WNO – an excellent opportunity to leave to the side any concerns with how to visually narrate a storyline or express the deeper themes of a work through staging, and simply entertain the audience with a pure display of technical…