Canadian-born Mel Cooper first came to the UK to study English Literature at Oxford University and stayed. He was captivated by the culture and history of Britain, which he found to be a welcoming and tolerant country. After working in highly illustrated, non-fiction publishing for over a decade, he founded and edited the magazine Opera Now. Since then he has worked as a consultant to the Japanese broadcaster NHK, a broadcaster on British Satellite Broadcasting, a maker of audio shows and arts critic for several airlines, and as one of the team that started Britain’s first commercial classical music radio station, Classic FM, on which he was both a classical music DJ and creator and presenter of shows like Classic America and Authentic
Performance. Throughout this period, he also lectured in music and literature in London and Oxford and published short stories in Canada. After working with the Genesis Foundation on helping to fund arts projects, he continues to write, review and lecture on music and literature. His first novel has just been published as an e-book. The title is City of Dreams. It is the first volume of a projected saga called The Dream Bearers. You can find the Kindle version of the book on Amazon.
As always, Longborough’s final presentation of the year is a showcase for emerging talent. This time the production is a modernised update by director...
If you’ve never experienced the kind of performance akin to what Shakespeare must have encountered the first time he attended a play given by a troupe...
Greg Doran has directed a clean and riveting production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. It is a clear and easily accessible production of a play...
The director Martin Constantine has managed to create a brilliantly witty, surprisingly moving and totally engaging production of Mozart and Da Ponte’...
An interview by Mel Cooper with the director Paul Hart about his new production of Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate opening at the Watermill Theatre near N...
The most striking and captivating thing about STONES IN HIS POCKETS is that two actors play all the parts, male and female, with great energy and pana...
Oh, dear! I am having real trouble analysing this new production of the iconic musical Hair. Partly that is because I am very familiar with the materi...
Anna Bolena is one of the great operas of the Italian romantic era. Historically, it was innovative both musically and dramatically. Among other reaso...
The Welsh National Opera have again produced a “reduced” version of an opera to tour small scale and mid-sized venues throughout this summer. Except t...
The new Longborough Opera Festival production of Das Rheingold approximates, within the “given” of its setting and budget, just about everything that ...
