by Music Editor | Nov 27, 2021 | Music
By Robert Thicknesse How do you turn a Hammer horror into a tragedy? It confronts every director of Verdi’s take on Shakespeare. Part of it is that the mid-19th century had such different ideas of drama (and of Shakespeare) from us, another that Verdi (and his...
by Lucien Jenkins | Nov 23, 2021 | Music
The question of when and where to set Wagner’s Ring is an entirely open one, since like Arthur and Lear, it is everywhere and nowhere. Richard Jones (director) and Stewart Laing (set and costume designer) answer this by locating Act 1 of Valkyrie in a Wickes shed, Act...
by Rick Jones | Oct 26, 2021 | Awards, Books, Dance, Drama, Film, Music, Uncategorized, Visual Arts
At the National Liberal Club last week, the Critics’ Circle presented the opera singer Dame Janet Baker with the Rosebowl Award for “Distinguished Service to Art”. The vote for this most endearing of prime donne had been cast in 2019 but certain world...
by Lucien Jenkins | Oct 8, 2021 | Music
The Royal Opera’s new Rigoletto has the casting is just right. Lisette Oropesa’s Gilda (who shares the role with Rosa Feola) manages the difficult balance between the coloratura writing of the part and the youthful innocence of the role. After all, she mustn’t be...
by Guy Rickards | Oct 6, 2021 | Music
Kelly Glyptis, in the title role, and Thomas Kelly as her lover Emile, in ‘Madeleine’ Surrey Opera is a semi-professional company, founded in 1969. Like many similar companies around the country, they offer a platform for young and aspiring singers. Unlike...
by Lucien Jenkins | Sep 29, 2021 | Music
Photo by Richard Hubert Smith Puccini could almost have written Madama Butterfly after hearing an appeal at a conference on intersectionality for material to support a new module, with its tragic tale of a woman misused by a man, a confrontation between a more- and a...
