Opera Reviews

L'Ange de Nisida / JPYAP Summer Programme, Royal Opera - buoyant touch in Donizetti bagatelle

David Nice Thursday, 19 July 2018

Two rules should help the non-Donizettian: avoid all stagings of the prolific Bergamasco's nearly 70 operas other than the comedies; and seek the guarantee of top bel canto stylists.

Ariadne auf Naxos, Opera Holland Park - stylish staging, world-class singing

David Nice Wednesday, 18 July 2018

"When the new god approaches, we surrender, struck dumb". Especially if, for the singer of those words, popular entertainer Zerbinetta, the “new god” takes the shape of same-sex love.

Prom 5, Pelléas et Mélisande, Glyndebourne review - for the ears, not the eyes

stephen Walsh Wednesday, 18 July 2018

What a fabulous score Pelléas et Mélisande is, and what a joy to be able to hear it in a concert performance without the distraction of some over-sophisticated director’s self-communings. Well, if only.

Comment

Isabeau, Opera Holland Park review - Mascagni's lumpy Godiva-ride rarity

David Nice Sunday, 15 July 2018

Valiant Opera Holland Park, always taking up the gauntlet for Italian operas which should mostly never be staged again. Worst was Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini, where musical ambition vastly outruns technique and inspiration. Mascagni's Iris with its hideous misogyny has now been followed by the same composer's Isabeau of 1911, turgid of libretto and dramaturgy.

Comment

Ariadne auf Naxos, Longborough Festival review - appetising energy and wit

stephen Walsh Saturday, 14 July 2018

Much as I love Strauss’s Ariadne in its final form, I have a sneaking nostalgia for the original version (attached to Hofmannsthal’s adaptation of Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme), which had Zerbinetta and her companions popping up after the final love duet and gently letting out some of its gas.

Alzira / The Daughter of the Regiment, Buxton Festival review – thundering good tunes

Robert Beale Wednesday, 11 July 2018

Alzira is Verdi’s shortest opera and his least performed, and you have to ask why.

Idomeneo, Buxton Festival review - revolution in the head

Richard Bratby Monday, 09 July 2018

The audience at the Buxton International Festival has a way of cutting to the essence of a production.

Pelléas et Mélisande, Glyndebourne review - frigid metatheatre

David Nice Sunday, 01 July 2018

Pierre Boulez simply crystallised the obvious when he described Debussy's unique masterpiece as "theatre of cruelty," despite its enigmatic beginnings. Richard Jones, when I asked him to talk about its plot, declared "it's about two men who love the same woman, with disastrous results". Productions by Jones, Peter Stein with Boulez conducting and Vick at Glyndebourne have all had us shaking with fear and weeping with pity.

Comment

The Turn of the Screw, ENO, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - one dimension, not four

David Nice Tuesday, 26 June 2018

Opera and music theatre have set the birds shrilling in Regent's Park before in the shape of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess – a very forgettable production – and Sondheim's Into the Woods – much better, and a score which can give any 20th century opera a run for its money in terms of thematic interconnection.

Comment

Partenope, Iford Arts review - a midsummer night's dream of a Handel comedy

alexandra Coghlan Tuesday, 26 June 2018

Rejected by London’s Royal Academy of Music in 1726 on grounds of frivolity, Partenope is the ultimate Handelian rom-com – a comedy whose intriguing is carried out with a smile, a swagger and a sparkle in the eye.

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