sat 20/09/2025

David Nice

David Nice's picture
Bio
The classical music and opera editor of theartsdesk, David writes, lectures and broadcasts on music. A former music critic for The Guardian and The Sunday Correspondent, he has made regular appearances on BBC Radio 3, not least in the long-running series Building a Library. He has written short studies on Elgar, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and the history of opera, and is currently working on the second volume of his Prokofiev biography for Yale University Press. He runs two Zoom lecture series, Opera in Depth on Mondays and a symphonies course on Thursdays.

Articles By David Nice

The Consul, Guildhall School review - blowsy melodrama rooted by committed students

Read more...

Soltani, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Barenboim, RFH review - passionate pilgrimages

Read more...

October, LSO, Strobel, Barbican review - Eisenstein with steel score

Read more...

Crowe, The English Concert, Bicket, Milton Court review - Mozartian prima-donna perfection

Read more...

The Lady from the Sea, Donmar Warehouse review - Nikki Amuka-Bird luminous in a sympathetic ensemble

Read more...

Uchida, SCO, Ticciati, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - Berlioz steals the show

Read more...

Osud/Trouble in Tahiti, Opera North - swings and roundabouts in a surprising double-bill

Read more...

Alan Hollinghurst: The Sparsholt Affair - pictures at an exhibition, with telling gaps

Read more...

Opera: Passion, Power and Politics, V&A review - seven cities, seven masterpieces

Read more...

Roman Rabinovich, Hatchlands review - poetry from Chopin's very own Pleyel piano

Read more...

Anne Schwanewilms, Charles Spencer, Wigmore Hall review - going deep in Schubert

Read more...

Santtu-Matias Rouvali on conducting in Gothenburg - 'they just want to make music. No bullshit'

Read more...

After the Rehearsal/Persona, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Barbican - van Hove reconfigures Bergman

Read more...

Kuusisto, Philharmonia, Salonen, RFH review - Icelanders fare better than Sibelius

Read more...

Pogostkina, BBCSO, Oramo, Barbican review - human emotions in Sibelius's heaven

Read more...

Oedipe, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - Enescu's masterpiece glorious and complete

Read more...

Pages

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Monteverdi Choir, ORR, Casado, St Martin-in-the-Fields revie...

35 years ago, persona-now-non-grata John Eliot Gardiner reveealed how performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito...

Dracula, Lyric Hammersmith review - hit-and-miss recasting o...

If a classic story is going to be told for the umpteenth time, there is a good bet it will come with a novel spin on it. So it proves...

Cho, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - finely-focused stormy w...

It was a hefty evening, as it needn't necessarily have been throughout, since Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony can conceal more darkness between the...

Album: Robert Plant - Saving Grace

Robert Plant is magnificently well-equipped to shine as a consummate musical survivor: not only has his voice kept its magic, with a range from...

The Code, Southwark Playhouse Elephant review - superbly cas...

Hot on the heels of Goodnight, Oscar comes another fictional meeting of real entertainment giants in Los Angeles, this time...

Can I get a Witness? review - time to die before you get old

Some time in the not too distant future, there are only two films on offer: Duck Soup, and, if you order the DVD in advance, ...

Reunion, Kiln Theatre review - a stormy night in every sense...

If you ever wanted to know what a mash up of Martin McDonagh and Conor McPherson, stirred (and there’s a lot of stirring in this...

The Lady from the Sea, Bridge Theatre review - flashes of br...

Like the lighting that crackles now and again to indicate an abrupt change of scene or mood, Simon Stone's version of The Lady from...