by Tom Sutcliffe | Feb 16, 2020 | Music
ENO no-no It is easy to see why Verdi was attracted to Schiller’s tragedy about the class system, Kabale und Liebe. A genius from the lower orders, Verdi believed in freedom and was classless. English-speaking critics patronise the Schiller play because of the poison...
by Tom Sutcliffe | Jan 21, 2020 | Music
Love thy neighbour Kurt Weill’s 1947 “Broadway opera” contains much fine writing, musically and dramatically. It is not shaped like a verismo opera: its excellent songs do not play the same intently focused role as in Puccini. Yet it shows off Weill’s huge theatrical...
by Tom Sutcliffe | Nov 28, 2019 | Music
Royal crush by Tom Sutcliffe Death in Venice, Benjamin Britten’s last opera, was always a special case – special because written for the composer’s beloved (and habitually unfaithful) partner Peter Pears, but also special because of the composer’s complicated interest...
by Tom Sutcliffe | Oct 15, 2019 | Music
On the pull We are not meant to sympathise with Don Pasquale, the elderly rich gent who is the central character of Donizetti’s perfectly moulded comedy premiered in Paris in 1843 and an instant hit. In the Royal Opera rep it has now arrived very well cast (and staged...
by Tom Sutcliffe | Oct 15, 2019 | Music, Uncategorized
To hell with it Daniel Kramer’s brief tenure as artistic director of English National Opera bore fruit of a sort in this season’s perhaps slightly smart-looking opening project of four works related to the Orphic myth. Orpheus who is supposed to have charmed animals...
