tue 01/07/2025

stephen walsh

Bio
Stephen is a former Observer music critic and a regular contributor to The Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Independent and the BBC. He is the author of a major biography of Stravinsky and other books on Stravinsky, Bartók and Schumann. He holds a chair in music at Cardiff University.

Articles By Stephen Walsh

The Turn of the Screw, Garsington Opera review - superb music drama on an open stage

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Rusalka, Glyndebourne Festival review - away with the distressed fairies

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Brundibár, Welsh National Opera review - bittersweet children's opera from the ghetto

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Das Rheingold, Longborough Festival Opera review - more Wagnerian excellence in a Gloucestershire barn

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I Fagiolini, Hollingworth, St George's Bristol review - Leonardo and music, immortal, invisible

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The Magic Flute, Welsh National Opera review - charming to hear, charmless to look at

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Un ballo in maschera, Welsh National Opera review - opera as brilliant self-parody

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War and Peace, Welsh National Opera review - an Operation Barbarossa that comes off

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theartsdesk at the Three Choirs Festival - religion, passion and Nordic fakery

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

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

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La Traviata, Longborough Festival review - muddled director, vocal mixed bag

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theartsdesk at the Leipzig Bach Festival: a cantata blockbuster

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Der fliegende Holländer, Longborough Festival review - stand and deliver on an empty stage

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Madama Butterfly, Glyndebourne review - perverse staging, outstanding cast

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BBC NOW, Alexandre Bloch, Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff review - tonal music in an avant-garde sense

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'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
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...

Summer Laugh review - five comics gear up for the Fringe

Appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe has long been an expensive gig for comics. But while stand-ups may need only a microphone to ply...

Album: Brìghde Chaimbeul - Sunwise

The first five-and-a-half minutes of Sunwise’s opening track “Dùsgadh / Waking" are taken up by a drone. Played on the Scottish small...

Music Reissues Weekly: Rupert’s People - Dream In My Mind

Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” was an instant phenomenon. Recorded in April 1967 and issued as a single on 12 May after pre-release play...

Intimate Apparel, Donmar Warehouse review - stirring story o...

The corset is an unlikely star of the latest Lynn Nottage play to arrive at the...

theartsdesk Q&A: director Andreas Dresen on his anti-Naz...

Andreas Dresen directs socially engaged realist films that invariably relay personal and political messages; the result can be tough but is...

Hercules, Theatre Royal Drury Lane review - new Disney stage...

Many years ago, reviewing pantomime for the first time, I recall looking around in the stalls. My brain was saying, “This is...