by Music Editor | Feb 28, 2025 | Music, Uncategorized
by Robert Thicknesse You approach any performance of Trovatore with a mix of gloating anticipation and trepidation. Could anything be more visceral, more utterly operatic, more grippingly awful and exhilarating? And yet so often it fails to hit the mark, its... 
by Guy Rickards | Feb 20, 2025 | Drama, Music
John Findon (Bothwell), Alex Otterburn (Stewart), Heidi Stober (Mary) in dress rehearsal of Mary, Queen of Scots; production photos taken on 13th February 2025 at ENO, (c) Ellie Kurttz Musgrave Mary, Queen of Scots The Coliseum, English National Opera / Joana... 
by Guy Rickards | Feb 13, 2025 | Music
Kristine Blaumane (cello), London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra / Andrey Boreyko, recorded Live on 18th March 2023 LPO D932 [23’ 42”] (Digital release only) The genre of the choral cello concerto is rarefied to say the least. Choral piano concertos (and I am... 
by Claudia Pritchard | Feb 12, 2025 | Drama, Music
Family at war: Festen at the Royal Opera House. Photo: Marc Brenner A lacerating masterpiece, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen drills relentlessly into a family with a dark secret in its cankerous heart. Festen is powered by a playwright Lee Hall’s libretto,... 
by Guy Rickards | Feb 8, 2025 | Drama, Music
David Ireland and Mary Bevan, ENO’s The Marriage of Figaro 2025 (c) Zoe Martin The Coliseum, English National Opera / Ainārs Rubiķis The simplest solutions are often the best, especially when dealing with something rather convoluted, as in the case of The...