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 ...
Shirin Neshat directed Aida at Salzburg Festival five years ago and it was reviewed here. It was her first experience as a director and, apart from so...
“So quiet, so beautiful around here… and I must die”, these are the last words that Káťa pronounces before throwing herself into the river Volga. She...
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...
For the 2022 Summer Festival, the American stage director Lydia Steier has reworked her 2018 production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte collaborating with...
Every exceptional opera performance has at least one scene that continues to resonate in one’s mind for hours and occasionally days after the experien...
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...
Monteverdi was a venerable and celebrated church musician of 75 when he wrote Poppea. It was quite common for church composers to supplement their inc...
As a lover of Jane Austen's novels, I have always felt that they do not offer the sort of dramatic set pieces that opera needs. So I have mixed feelin...
