by Tom Sutcliffe | Mar 3, 2019 | Music
PISS POOR Franz Lehár’s operetta, newly staged at the Coliseum by English National Opera, looks sort of traditionally Edwardian – except for the slinky contemporary ballgown worn by Sarah Tynan in the title role of Hanna Glawari, as up-to-the-minute as the MeToo...
by Lucien Jenkins | Feb 18, 2019 | Music, Uncategorized
Dancing with Mr D Director David Pountney plays Verdi’s tale of love, death and vendetta with creepily comic touches. Every now and then the chorus get together for a conga line or work coordinated dance steps and hops into their perambulations. This compromises our...
by Lucien Jenkins | Feb 9, 2019 | Music
Emergency exits Leos Janacek’s Kat’a Kabanova, premiered in Brno in 1921, is a brooding piece about adultery and death framed in a plot of older people tyrannising younger ones. Kat’a (normally rendered as Katya), sung by Amanda Majeski, and her husband Tikhon (Andrew...
by Rick Jones | Feb 7, 2019 | Music
Early promise “The isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs” is what Shakespeare actually wrote in The Tempest with reference to the magical island of the play’s setting, although of course it was always taken as Britannia. Perhaps there will be a...
by Tom Sutcliffe | Feb 2, 2019 | Music
Destination unknown Tell it not in Gath – but Mozart’s Magic Flute is politically too incorrect in this #MeToo era. Among many cuts in Opera North’s new production, no animals get charmed by the magic of Tamino’s flute on his mission to rescue Pamina, and of course...
by Music Editor | Feb 1, 2019 | Music
Family planning by Robert Thicknesse A lot of supporters of the London Philharmonic Orchestra couldn’t get into last February’s cycle opener (this is a pretty leisurely Ring, culminating in a full cycle in 2021) because of its “gala” billing and concomitantly ruinous...
