Music
News & Reviews
AWARD FOR YOUNG TALENT (COMPOSER) TO DONGHOON SHIN
The presentation of the Music Section's Awards for 2020 (based on activity carried out during the previous year) has been much disrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic. The Section prefers to present the Awards wherever possible at concerts featuring the artists...
read moreMacbeth, Royal Opera
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...
read moreTHE VALKYRIE, LONDON COLISEUM
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...
read moreDame Janet Baker accepts the Rosebowl
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 health issues...
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