Akhmetshina Seduces the Garden as Dalila Last night saw the first revival of Richard Jones’ resolutely non-realist production of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila. Jones avoids the temptation of slipping into contemporary geopolitics and focuses on the conflict between the ascetic spirituality of the Jews and the much jollier, if crass, materialism of the Philistines […]
Peter Grimes at the Royal Opera House
A Visceral First Revival of Deborah Warner’s Peter Grimes It’s always unnerving seeing a revival of a production you have loved. Will the singers be on form? Will that initial impact be reinforced or fade away to a lesser experience? Will new cast members and the conductor bring a fresh energy to the production or […]
Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House
Bravado and Bravura in this barnstormer of a production Oliver Mears’s Rigoletto is back at the Royal Opera House with a revival of his production of Rigoletto. The story of Rigoletto is adapted from Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’Amuse (The King Amuses Himself). Rigoletto’s librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, replaced the king with the Duke of […]
Siegfried – Royal Ballet and Opera Ring Cycle
Barry Kosky continues his Ring Cycle at the RBO with a Five-Star Siegfried In Siegfried, the third part of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Wagner shifts the focus away from the troubled world of the gods towards the energy of youth on earth. This is storytelling through opera, where the theatre is crucial and the […]
Opera Locos – Sadler’s Wells
Opera does not do greatest hits albums, but if they did… Giuseppe Verdi meets Bob Marley in Opera Locos, a show that blends opera’s best-known and loved arias with a sprinkling of pop hits Let’s be honest: opera can be a bit of a hard sell. Perhaps not to those who know and love the […]
Iolanthe – Charles Court Opera at Wilton’s Music Hall
Lords and Fairies Frolic in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe Walk through the large wooden doors into Wilton’s Music Hall, and you’ll find a rabbit warren of bars serving cocktails, beer, wine and food. It’s an intimate, atmospheric setting with stripped-down wood, bare plaster, and mismatched chairs and tables, making it a great place to meet […]
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny – ENO
English National Opera at the London Coliseum Presents Brecht and Weill’s City of Mahagonny in a New Production In the hedonistic city of Mahagonny, almost everything is allowed. Eating, sex, fighting and getting drunk are celebrated. But everything has its price. A designer town, built from scratch by three criminals on the run from justice, […]
Così Fan Tutte, English National Opera at the Coliseum
A Timely Revival of Phelim McDermott’s Stylish Così fan Tutte. Two-act comic opera Così fan tutte (Women are like that) is the last of Mozart’s trio of collaborations with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. Cosi was a commission from the court of the Habsburg monarch Joseph II, and, with Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, […]
Boris Godunov at the Royal Opera House
Terfel Returns with a Monumental Boris Director Richard Jones’ take on Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov is having its third outing at the Royal Opera House; previous productions were in 2016 and 2019, with Bryn Terfel reprising his role as the haunted Czar. Mussorgsky drafted his own libretto for Boris Godunov from Pushkin’s drama and Karamzin’s […]
La traviata at the Royal Opera House
A fabulous revival of La traviata Richard Eyre’s landmark production of Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata has returned to The Royal Opera House. The opera’s themes encompass sex, death, grand passion, family honour and finally tragedy, and it marks the end of the vocal-led ‘Bel Canto’ period in opera, moving towards a greater depth of characterisation […]