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John Johnston

John Johnston

John Johnston was a contributor to Bachtrack 2017-19. John was a true gentleman and lifelong opera "nut" who frequently travelled across Europe to catch performances, making regular pilgrimages to the Bayreuth Festival among others. His supreme knowledge and appreciation of voices meant he took to reviewing like the proverbial duck to water. We enjoyed his style and his insatiable appetite for catching rare operas and new productions wherever he could.

Author:John Johnston

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Showing 34 of 34 articles

Folk rhythms and changing times in German language version of Smetana's Bartered Bride

By John Johnston, 25 April 2019

What brought real distinction and authenticity to the evening, as so often in this house, was the outstanding playing of the Staatskapelle conducted by Tomaš Netopil. From the start of the overture with its rapidly scurrying fugato for strings and pointed phrasing from the woodwind one felt the true sense of Smetana’s Czech inflected rhythms and harmonies

***11

Folk rhythms and changing times in Dresden's Bartered Bride

By John Johnston

“God save us all from goblins”: a rare outing for Stanford's Travelling Companion

By John Johnston, 30 November 2018

Charles Villiers Stanford's The Travelling Companion is performed at Cadogan Hall by New Sussex Opera.

****1

A rare outing for Stanford's Travelling Companion

By John Johnston

Russian pyrotechnics and robust Anglican religion contrast in BBC SO programme

By John Johnston, 15 November 2018

Dame Ethel Smyth's Mass in D enjoys a rare outing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins.

****1

Russian pyrotechnics and robust Anglican religion

By John Johnston

The Enchanted Island a rich and strange Baroque confection from British Youth Opera

By John Johnston, 05 September 2018

Rather than compiling a Top Ten of Baroque Hits, The Enchanted Island amounts to much more than a gallimaufry of choice gobbets, seasoned with French galenterie.

****1

The Enchanted Island a rich and strange Baroque confection

By John Johnston

Romantic love blooms in the lost garden of West Horsley

By John Johnston, 26 June 2018

Olena Tokar's assured coloratura made an immediate success of the waltz with her convincingly adolescent appearance, rhythmic verve and stylish phrasing.

***11

Romantic love blooms in the lost garden of West Horsley

By John Johnston

Moreton-in-Marsh

Der fliegende Holländer: an exhilarating storm-tossed evening in the Cotswolds

By John Johnston, 13 June 2018

With a glinting voice of a youthful sheen, like bracing Nordic air, Kirstin Sharpin was entirely convincing as the obsessed dreamer, Senta.

***11

Moreton-in-Marsh

Exhilarating storm-tossed evening in the Cotswolds

By John Johnston

A classically elegant Così fan tutte for a balmy summer evening at Holland Park

By John Johnston, 31 May 2018

As the two sisters, Eleanor Dennis and Kitty Whately ideally complemented and blended with each other.

****1

A classically elegant Così fan tutte at OHP

By John Johnston

Periwigs and a plane tree: Baroque bawdiness at Komische Oper Berlin

By John Johnston, 17 February 2018

With many costume changes, notably into a Sun-King with very prominent phalic sunburst, Houtzeel held centre-stage in the title role.

****1

Baroque bawdiness at Komische Oper Berlin

By John Johnston

Frankfurt am Main

Words or music? Collaboration or resistance? A new Capriccio in Frankfurt

By John Johnston, 24 January 2018

Camilla Nylund’s rich, ample voice bloomed in the glorious setting of the sonnet, cosseted by burnished horn playing, in Strauss' unsurpassed operatic farewell to the soprano voice.

****1

Frankfurt am Main

Words or music? Collaboration or resistance? A new Capriccio in Frankfurt

By John Johnston

Nostalgia and neurosis as Die tote Stadt returns to the Semperoper after nearly a century

By John Johnston, 21 January 2018

In a score that can be a Technicolor wallow, Jurowski’s sure sense of dramatic pulse and balance, encompassed the brash dance rhythms, religious grandeur, vivid tone painting and the extremes of dissonance.

*****

Nostalgia and neurosis as Die tote Stadt returns to the Semperoper after nearly a century

By John Johnston

Marek Janowski returns to Weber’s Euryanthe in Dresden after 44 years

By John Johnston, 19 January 2018

Emily Magee was in glowingly refulgent voice as the 'damsel in distress', Euryanthe, in this concert performance of Weber's rarity.

****1

Marek Janowski returns to Weber’s Euryanthe

By John Johnston

Affirmative end to Sakari Oramo's BBCSO Sibelius cycle

By John Johnston, 06 January 2018

With its vertiginous vocal leaps and broad intervals, Komsi's pure pitch-perfect soprano soared like the eldrich keening of a sea bird. The spareness and incantatory intensity were heightened by the BBCSO and Oramo.

****1

Affirmative end to Sakari Oramo's BBCSO Sibelius cycle

By John Johnston

Big city alienation and love in the LSO's Bernstein 100 season

By John Johnston, 16 December 2017

Cast and choir snaked and kicked their legs through the aisles of the hall – picking up audience members along the way – leading to a riotous on-stage dance.

****1

Bernstein 100: Big city alienation and love

By John Johnston

Baroque intimacy and imperial splendour in the LPO's traversal of the four seasons

By John Johnston, 24 November 2017

Glazunov's The Seasons is a beautifully wrought and iridescent score, a jewel, a decorative Fabergé-like work of art, stuffed with melodic bonbons.

***11

Baroque intimacy and imperial splendour

By John Johnston

Menotti's fiercely topical The Consul delivers an emotional protest at Guildhall School

By John Johnston, 30 October 2017

Guildhall School of Music and Drama tackles Gian Carlo Menotti's rarity, a tale of stateless and paperless 'citizens of nowhere' seeking refuge amid Kafkaesque bureaucracy.

****1

Menotti's fiercely topical Consul at Guildhall

By John Johnston

Miracle in a wasteland: Das Wunder der Heliane returns to Flanders

By John Johnston, 01 October 2017

At its local Antwerp première, David Bösch’s new production of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane makes it the only house ever to have mounted twice.

*****

Miracle in a wasteland: Das Wunder der Heliane

By John Johnston

The End of Time and a UK première from the LPO and Vladimir Jurowski

By John Johnston, 27 September 2017

Prophecies and apocalyptic visions were on the programme as part of the London Philharmonic's Be Moved season.

****1

The End of Time and a UK première

By John Johnston

PCM6: A voyage of discovery in Christiane Karg's Prom debut

By John Johnston, 21 August 2017

The opening of the Duparc rippled diaphanously in Martineau's hands as the seductive but pure silver of Karg's voice.

****1

A voyage of discovery in Christiane Karg's Prom debut

By John Johnston

Prom 30: Innovation, fantasy and Old Testament excess from Bournemouth

By John Johnston, 07 August 2017

Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra brought a wide ranging programme from the south coast for their annual Proms visit.

****1

Prom 30: Innovation, fantasy and Old Testament excess

By John Johnston

Myth, polkas and folksong to celebrate 100 years of Finnish Independence

By John Johnston, 31 July 2017

A talented ensemble proves pays testament to the heritage, vitality and continuing inventiveness of Finnish folk music.

*****

Myth, polkas and folksong to celebrate Finnish Independence

By John Johnston

Tragic dignity and pathos from José Cura as Otello in Liège

By John Johnston, 29 June 2017

Cura's powerful spinto tenor impressed from his opening “Esultate!” and left no doubt as to the Moor's authority.

****1

Tragic dignity and pathos from José Cura's Otello

By John Johnston

Elisabet Strid makes an outstanding debut in new production of Salome in Leipzig

By John Johnston, 17 June 2017

In a state of almost child-like transfiguration and fulfilment, Strid's voice fully encompassed the extremes of the last scene.

****1

An outstanding debut in new Leipzig Salome

By John Johnston

Wolfgang Wagner's swansong: Lohengrin in Prague

By John Johnston, 14 June 2017

Clad in sulphurous yellow with beaded jet shoulder pads she looked well able to vanquish Lohengrin in single combat with the swish of her cloak.

****1

Wolfgang Wagner's swansong: Lohengrin in Prague

By John Johnston

Ragnarök: the long twilight of the Stockholm Ring

By John Johnston, 29 May 2017

Ragnarök: the Swedish title for Götterdämmerung resonates with Old Norse folk memories of universal inundation and overthow of the order of the gods.

****1

Ragnarök: the long twilight of the Stockholm Ring

By John Johnston

Siegfried as Swedish Midsummer Vigil in the Stockholm Ring

By John Johnston, 27 May 2017

A performance of Wagner's Siegfried stands or falls by its titular hero and Lars Cleveman is highly experienced.

****1

Siegfried as Swedish Midsummer Vigil

By John Johnston

An outstanding Swedish Sieglinde in a strongly cast Walküre in Stockholm

By John Johnston, 25 May 2017

Stemme as Brünnhilde delivered her opening battle cry in Victorian riding habit like one of Trollope's racier fox- hunting heroines.

*****

An outstanding Swedish Sieglinde in Stockholm

By John Johnston

A highly accomplished start to Stockholm's Ring

By John Johnston, 24 May 2017

John Lundgren, bullet-headed, youthful and overbearing, gave a world-class performance as Wotan.

****1

A highly accomplished start to Stockholm's Ring

By John Johnston

Frankfurt am Main

Iain Paterson's Dutchman drops anchor in Frankfurt

By John Johnston, 20 May 2017

Iain Paterson's house debut as the Holländer was sufficient reason to drop anchor in the Main for this revival of David Bösch's 2015 production.

***11

Frankfurt am Main

Iain Paterson's Dutchman drops anchor in Frankfurt

By John Johnston

A Russian journey of the spirit at King's Place

By John Johnston, 12 May 2017

Joan Rodger's idiomatic soprano and the surging cello obbligato were revelatory in this symbolist paean.

****1

A Russian journey of the spirit at King's Place

By John Johnston

Twilight of the Wagner Clan depicted in a new opera in Karlsruhe

By John Johnston, 28 April 2017

An astringent sorbet between the courses of a heavily sauced Wagnerian banquet.

****1

Twilight of the Wagner Clan

By John Johnston

Destructive dormitory passions in rare Zandonai revival in Erfurt

By John Johnston, 19 April 2017

Mounted as part of Theater Erfurt's Romeo and Juliet, Zandonai's 1922 opera, in its first German production since 1942, offered a distinctive retelling of the tragedy of the 'star-cross'd lovers', both as a composition and in staging.

****1

Destructive dormitory passions in Erfurt

By John Johnston

Pharaonic spectacle: Aida in Moravia

By John Johnston, 10 April 2017

A night of Egyptian musical and scenic splendour.

****1

Pharaonic spectacle: Aida in Moravia

By John Johnston

New lamps for old: rediscovery of a Swedish Arabian Nights opera

By John Johnston, 07 April 2017

An exotic Arabian Nights tale with happy ending in Braunschweig.

****1

Rediscovery of a Swedish Arabian Nights opera

By John Johnston

Bayreuth comes to the Ruhr: leading Wagner singers in Gelsenkirchen for a new Tristan und Isolde

By John Johnston, 04 March 2017

Catherine Foster returns, in the Ruhr, to the role of Isolde with Torsten Kerl in a new production of Tristan und Isolde .

***11

Bayreuth comes to the Ruhr for a new Tristan und Isolde

By John Johnston