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 as a 'mature student' he has recently gained a certificate in Opera Studies from Rose Bruford College.
This version of The Rape of Lucretia, co-produced by The Royal Opera and Britten Pears Arts provides a compelling evening at the Linbury Theatre. The ...
This extraordinary opera by Janacek remains an enigma to me. Its bizarre mix of two stories – one about a sad group of humans, the other about a rioto...
Battersea Arts Centre is a venue that can be trusted to put on shows that challenge, excite and entertain. This show – devised by Australian group, Ba...
WNO Youth Opera has been tasked with bringing this strange operetta by Shostakovich to life. First performed in 1959 near the end of a career that had...
Transforming Martel's extraordinary novel about a boy and a tiger adrift on the ocean after a shipwreck into a theatre piece must have seemed pretty f...
Bartok's 1918 one-act “expressionist” opera Bluebeard's Castle is a work that is puzzling and compelling in equal measure. In this fine version – pres...
This utterly absorbing retelling of The Magic Flute is a triumph for Opera Alegria – and for the Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn season. I must confess to ...
The Baseless Fabric company exists to bring theatre and opera to public spaces and to give new audiences the chance to experience performances that th...
Opera in Spain was influenced by the Italian tradition that dominated the rest of Europe in the period after 1800. But it managed to maintain its own ...
Rossini wrote some 39 operas and is best remembered for his comedies, particularly The Barber of Seville, but his output was evenly balanced between c...
