Owen Davies was brought up in London but has Welsh roots. He was raised on chapel hymns, Handel oratorios and Mozart arias. He began going to the theatre in the 1960s and, as a teenager, used to stand at the back of the Old Vic stalls to watch Olivier's National Theatre productions. He also saw many RSC productions at the Aldwych in the 1960s. At this time he also began to see operas at Covent Garden and developed a love for Mozart, Verdi and Richard Strauss. After a career as a social worker and a trade union officer, Owen has retired from paid employment but is a student at Rose Bruford College studying for a BA in Opera Studies.
The Grimeborn opera season at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston continues with a re-imagined version of Eugene Onegin, devised by Guido Martin-Brandis. Th...
The Grimeborn opera season at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston has seen double bills from Opera Alegria before. This year they have twinned two very diff...
Opera Della Luna has an admirable track record of revitalising old comic operas. Its guiding spirit, Jeff Clarke, has taken Donizetti’s comic masterpi...
The Grimeborn opera season at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston always throws up some fascinating curiosities – this charming comic opera by Ethel Smyth i...
The Grimeborn opera season at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston begins with The Rape of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten and it is a triumph. It is a perfect ...
Another classic musical arrives on the stage of the Coliseum in London. Cole Porter’s witty and entertaining story of the backstage dramas of a compan...
“Behold the light of despair, the glare of anguish”. It is so difficult to know where to start with this extraordinary work by composer Philip Venable...
Ronald Harwood has a real talent for conjuring up the world of theatre and the pains and pleasures of those who make their living by performing, in th...
The English National Opera’s revival of The Marriage of Figaro is a welcome success after recent troubles. Fiona Shaw, who was the original director o...
What is the opposite of “turning in your grave”? Because whatever it is that is what W. S. Gilbert is surely doing today. He was the master of gentle ...
