by Richard Bratby | Jul 29, 2018 | Music
Victims of love As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods: but in Longborough Festival Opera’s production of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, it’s the girls you have to watch. Love, Fortune and Virtue – the mismatched trio of allegorical figures who provide... 
by Amanda Holloway | Jul 20, 2018 | Music, Uncategorized
Recording angel Donizetti would have been tickled pink to hear Sir Mark Elder and the orchestra of the Royal Opera giving the world premiere of his opera semiseria. Elder has spent years championing little-known bel canto works, recording nine of them for Opera Rara,... 
by Sebastian Scotney | Jul 16, 2018 | Music, Uncategorized
“Is there no ‘beyond?’/ Are we already there?” Ariadne asks towards the end of Ariadne auf Naxos. At the opening night, conductor Anthony Negus and the Longborough Orchestra were conveying exactly that sense of having suddenly stumbled across new and unexpected joys.... 
by Music Editor | Jul 3, 2018 | Film
by Anna Smith, President, The Critics’ Circle. When I think of Jaws, I often think of my friend Kirsten, who first saw it as a child, in hospital after having had her tonsils out. When her visiting aunt nodded off in front of the TV in her private room, she was... 
by Music Editor | Jul 2, 2018 | Film
By Anna Smith I’ve become a bit of a regular at the Royal Albert Hall’s ‘in concert’ series: it’s a certainly an impressive place to watch classic movies with a live orchestral soundtrack. Back to the Future and Amadeus raised the roof, and Raiders of the Lost Ark was... 