Reviews
Don Giovanni, Salzburg Festival
The employment of artists with alleged links with Putin grabs headlines in the opera world. Thus, the decision of the Salzburg Festival to have Teodor Currentzis in the pit was sure to be controversial. However, if it was there was no indication of this from the audience at his return to conduct Don Giovanni, this…
A novel take on La bohème
Longborough Festival Opera **** As the summer sun beat down on the rolling grounds of Longborough, this highly enjoyable new production of La bohème opened in a somewhat unconventional manner: a Christmas carol. Instead of the familiar burst of an energetic orchestra, plunging the listener directly into the chilly world of the Parisian bohemians, it…
The gods fizzle out. Götterdämmerung at Bayreuth.
*** The audience for Götterdämmerung from Austrian director Valentin Schwarz’s infamous Ring cycle demonstrated the Bayreuth audience shows no fear in overdoing the booing for the creatives and lavishing too much praise on the singers. It seems something of a sport. This fourth section of the Ring Cycle is undoubtedly an unsatisfying take on the…
A refreshingly intelligent and entertaining Tannhäuser.
Bayreuth Festival. ***** This is proof that imaginative staging and interpretation that retains the spirit and intention of an opera can defy what at first seems a strange and even blasphemous offering of Tannhäuser. Director Tobias Kratzer and his creative team merge actual performance on the Bayreuth stage with live backstage video and pre-recordings, taking…
A Tristan und Isolde death cult, Bayreuth Festival
*** It was supposed to be the highlight of the 2024 season, yet such was the flatness of the production and question marks over the performance of Tristan it was eclipsed by the revival of Tannhäuser which was not even originally scheduled to be staged this year. I am sure I am not alone in…
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…