… and so to my second and final Messiah this year. I mention this, despite the fact he first was reviewed for a different website: Wild Arts’ staged Messiah at…
Noël à la Chapelle: Magnificat
Christmas comes to Versailles, and the magnificent Chapelle Royale, courtesy of Le Poème Harmonique and Vincent Dumestre, one of the finest conductors of Baroque music around. There was even a…
The Triumph of Abstract Beauty: Saburo Teshigawara’s Orfeo ed Euridice returns to the New National Theatre Tokyo
The much-awaited revival of Saburo Teshigawara’s 2022 production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, seen on December 6, truly embodied the spirit of “less is sometimes more.” First presented in Vienna…
Viktor Ullmann: Der Kaiser von Atlantis, oder Die Tod-Verweigerung
The German-speaking Czech-born composer Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) was active in the concentration camp at Terezín (Theresienstadt), at which the inmates were encouraged to give numerous musical performances. The Nazis developed…
Strong Personalities Enliven ENO’s HMS Pinafore
Not so much a fearsome man-o’-war, this HMS Pinafore was more a tea clipper with a crew of jolly tars that could have come straight from the long-running radio series…
A swallow returns: the elusive final version of Puccini’s La rondine
Although more associated with operas that really reside in the cracks of the repertoire, Opera Rara does investigate – or reconstruct – versions of better-known opera. Their release of the…
Carmina Burana at Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago recently programmed several performances of Carl Orff’s secular cantata Carmina Burana as part of its fall roster. The soloists were Jasmine Habersham, soprano, David Portillo, tenor,…
Christmas at Wigmore Hall
‘Weihnachten – es naht die jubelvolle Zeit’ was written at the start of Wigmore Hall’s free programme: Christmas – the joyous time is approaching. Innit. And to celebrate the annual…
A Brilliant, Entertaining Merging of Two One-Act Comedies for the Donizetti Opera Festival
The two one act comic operas in this double bill were written as entirely separate works, in 1836 and 1841 respectively. But Stefania Bonfadelli pairs them brilliantly as two sides…
Agenda-Driven Les Noces de Figaro at the Palais Garnier Undermines any Humour
I sometimes wonder if directors actually like music or even the operas they agree to stage. This reboot of Netia Jones’s 2022 Les Noces de Figaro is a reminder of…