thu 03/07/2025

David Nice

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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

El-Khoury, Spyres, Hallé, Rizzi, Cadogan Hall review - bel canto lives again

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Orange Is the New Black, Season 5, Netflix review - counterpoint in a three-day prison riot

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Kozhukhin, LSO, Rattle, Barbican

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East Neuk Festival review - Schubert, brass and nine electric guitars

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theartsdesk at Budapest Wagner Days: Bayreuth on the Danube

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Mitridate, Re di Ponto, Royal Opera review - Crowe and costumes light up pointless revival

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Albert Herring, The Grange Festival review - playing it straight yields classic comedy gold

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Kuusisto, London Chamber Orchestra, Ashkenazy, Cadogan Hall

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theartsdesk at the Istanbul Music Festival: East and West in perfect balance

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Hamlet, Glyndebourne review - integrity if not genius in Brett Dean's score

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Evgeny Kissin: Memoirs and Reflections review - Russian education, European conviction, Jewish heritage

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theartsdesk in Göttingen: Handel for all

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La Rondine, Opera Holland Park

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La Strada, The Other Palace review - Fellini's tragicomedy becomes a noisy romp

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theartsdesk Q&A: Soprano Aida Garifullina

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The Mikado review - Sasha Regan's all-male operetta formula hits a reef

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Jurassic World Rebirth review - prehistoric franchise gets a...

The first Jurassic Park movie now seems virtually Jurassic itself, having been released in the sepia-tinged year of 1993. Directed with...

Album: Mocky - Music Will Explain (Choir Music Vol. 1)

Dominic “Mocky” Salole has had a long career in which the tension between authenticity and pastiche has been a constant. Toronto-born, of English...

Semele, Royal Opera review - unholy smoke

Poor, slightly silly Semele fries at the sight of lover Jupiter casting off his mortal form, but in Congreve’s and Handel’s supposedly happy...

Sudan, Remember Us review - the revolution will be memorised

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Le nozze di Figaro, Glyndebourne review - perceptive humanit...

Over 100 years ago, John Christie envisaged Wagner’s Parsifal with limited forces in the Organ Room at Glyndebourne. He would have been...

Quadrophenia, Sadler's Wells review - missed opportunit...

The red, white and blue bull’s-eye on the front curtain at Sadler’s Wells tells us we are in the familiar territory of Pete Townshend’s...

Fidelio, Garsington Opera review - a battle of sunshine and...

Sometimes, as the first act of Beethoven’s Fidelio closes, the chorus of prisoners discreetly fade away backstage as their brief taste of...