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Charlotte Valori

Charlotte Valori

Charlotte Valori read Classics at Christ Church, Oxford. As a classicist, her main interest is Greek tragedy and its reception by later cultures, which has led to a continuing passion for theatre and opera. Charlotte reviews for several online magazines, and won the Bachtrack Opera Award 2015 for Best Written English Review. Follow her on Twitter @operissima.

Author:Charlotte Valori

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Austen-tastic opera: Mansfield Park, Waterperry Opera Festival

By Charlotte Valori, 18 August 2018

Jonathan Dove's witty Jane Austen chamber opera received a standing ovation from an ecstatic audience: quite the opening salvo for a brand new summer opera festival.

*****

Austen-tastic opera: Mansfield Park, Waterperry Opera Festival

By Charlotte Valori

Une princesse inconnue: Isouard's Cendrillon from Bampton Classical Opera

By Charlotte Valori, 20 July 2018

Bampton’s “mission to rescue unjustly neglected classical period opera” is vindicated once again with a fresh, fun account of the near-lost original source for Rossini's La Cenerentola: Isouard's Cendrillon.

****1

Une princesse inconnue: Isouard's Cendrillon

By Charlotte Valori

Everybody loves David: Handel’s Saul at Glyndebourne

By Charlotte Valori, 19 July 2018

Barrie Kosky's punchy, visually exhilarating take on Saul, with Iestyn Davies as a sublime David, makes for a powerful evening of drama at Glyndebourne.

****1

Everybody loves David: Handel’s Saul at Glyndebourne

By Charlotte Valori

Moreton-in-Marsh

A game of two halves: Ariadne auf Naxos at Longborough

By Charlotte Valori, 13 July 2018

Ariadne auf Naxos shines in an ultra-contemporary world of high net worth tantrums at Longborough Festival Opera, complete with glam rock fairies, giant string, and glorious music.

****1

Moreton-in-Marsh

A game of two halves: Ariadne auf Naxos at Longborough

By Charlotte Valori

Shivers up and down the spine: David Sawer's The Skating Rink at Garsington

By Charlotte Valori, 5 July 2018

Tough, thrilling, ambitious and new: The Skating Rink is an exciting new major commission by Garsington, and its world première delivered on every level.

*****

The Skating Rink: Shivers up and down the spine

By Charlotte Valori

Bradford on Avon

Queen's dating dilemma: Handel's Partenope at Iford

By Charlotte Valori, 4 July 2018

Another masterful, sprightly and unstuffily fun production of Handel at Iford: Christopher Cowell's Partenope is erotically charged, well cast and comically compelling.

****1

Bradford on Avon

Queen's dating dilemma: Handel's Partenope at Iford

By Charlotte Valori

Moreton-in-Marsh

Shame, camera, action: Verdi's La traviata at Longborough

By Charlotte Valori, 26 June 2018

Daisy Evans' take on Verdi's iconic tale of love stymied by the cruelty of others is characteristically innovative and insightful, while also blessed with a remarkable central performance from Anna Patalong.

****1

Moreton-in-Marsh

Shame, camera, action: Verdi's La traviata at Longborough

By Charlotte Valori

Songs of innocence and experience: Verdi's Falstaff at Garsington

By Charlotte Valori, 16 June 2018

Bruno Ravella's fast-paced Falstaff for Garsington still has crucial space for pathos amid the comedy, with a notably subtle central performance from Henry Waddington.

****1

Songs of innocence and experience: Falstaff at Garsington

By Charlotte Valori

Pastel-perfect hell: To See The Invisible at the Aldeburgh Festival

By Charlotte Valori, 8 June 2018

Emily Howard's new opera, an Aldeburgh Festival commission, takes an ambitiously modernist approach to a dystopian story of loneliness: a tough, but thought-provoking work.

****1

Pastel-perfect hell: To See The Invisible

By Charlotte Valori

Bradford on Avon

Escape to the country: Bernstein's Candide at Iford

By Charlotte Valori, 29 May 2018

Jeff Clarke's characteristically high-octane style seems made for the sarcastic, hyperactive existential madness that is Candide in this little gem of a production for Iford.

****1

Bradford on Avon

Escape to the country: Bernstein's Candide at Iford

By Charlotte Valori

Present for the future: a hansel at Snape Maltings

By Charlotte Valori, 15 March 2018

Julius Drake, Krzysztof Chorzelski and Mark Padmore contributed their notable gifts of piano, viola and voice respectively in a very special, often heartfelt fundraising evening for two music education charities.

****1

A hansel at Snape Maltings

By Charlotte Valori

Immortal thoughts: Mortal Voices from The Academy of Ancient Music in Cambridge

By Charlotte Valori, 16 February 2018

A mixed programme of Corelli, Handel and Pergolesi brings beauty and spiritual intensity, as well as some empowered erotic playfulness, to an evening with the Academy of Ancient Music.

****1

Immortal thoughts: Mortal Voices

By Charlotte Valori

Surprises aplenty from I Fagiolini: Monteverdi's other Vespers

By Charlotte Valori, 22 November 2017

I Fagiolini's very interesting programme of music by Monteverdi and his contemporaries pulls together a wide range of works, but somehow lacks an ensemble feel.

***11

Monteverdi's other Vespers

By Charlotte Valori

Lust, silk and strangulation: Zemlinsky's A Florentine Tragedy

By Charlotte Valori, 7 August 2017

Zemlinsky's dark story of infidelity and murder, from Oscar Wilde's unfinished play, poses a significant musical challenge for both audience and director.

***11

Lust, silk and strangulation: A Florentine Tragedy

By Charlotte Valori

Duel of duos: Rimsky-Korsakov's Mozart and Salieri, Mascagni's Zanetto

By Charlotte Valori, 3 August 2017

Opera in the City puts two key short works side by side, both duos, to create an evening of contrasting voices in which mature, selfish passion quails before youthful promise.

****1

Duel of duos from Opera in the City Festival

By Charlotte Valori

Green-eyed miracle: Salieri’s The School of Jealousy

By Charlotte Valori, 22 July 2017

Wet English summer weather may have driven Bampton's pacy revival of Salieri's wickedly funny La scuola de' gelosi indoors, but rain could not dampen the sheer fun ahead.

****1

Green-eyed miracle: Salieri’s The School of Jealousy

By Charlotte Valori

Moreton-in-Marsh

Who pulls the strings? Mozart's Magic Flute at Longborough

By Charlotte Valori, 15 July 2017

A fresh, yet traditional Magic Flute at Longborough uses puppetry to bring an atmosphere of fairytale onto the stage, with fine singing from a strong cast.

****1

Moreton-in-Marsh

Mozart's Magic Flute at Longborough

By Charlotte Valori

Fresh peaches of temptation: Britten's Albert Herring at Buxton

By Charlotte Valori, 8 July 2017

A period-perfect Albert Herring from Francis Matthews for Buxton International Festival takes time to settle into its stride, but provides plenty of laughs along the way.

****1

Fresh peaches of temptation

By Charlotte Valori

Clamorous harbingers of blood and death: Verdi's Macbeth at Buxton International Festival

By Charlotte Valori, 7 July 2017

A searing, edge-of-your-seat spinetingler from Elijah Moshinsky makes the strongest possible case for Verdi's first Macbeth, ideally suited to the proportions of Buxton's beautiful Opera House.

*****

Verdi's Macbeth at Buxton International Festival

By Charlotte Valori

For teenage kicks: Mozart's Lucio Silla at Buxton International Festival

By Charlotte Valori, 9 July 2017

The fashion for reviving Mozart's teenage operas brings a vocally dazzling production of Lucio Silla to Buxton, nevertheless hampered by the work's own lack of believable drama and some fairly flat staging.

***11

For teenage kicks: Mozart's Lucio Silla at Buxton International Festival

By Charlotte Valori

Myth illustrated with music: Purcell's King Arthur at the Aldeburgh Festival

By Charlotte Valori, 22 June 2017

A joyous, consummately skilful account from Vox Luminis breathed delightful life into Purcell and Dryden's unusual semi-opera at Snape Maltings.

****1

Myth illustrated with music: King Arthur

By Charlotte Valori

Sensitive negotiations: Handel's Radamisto, Guildhall

By Charlotte Valori, 5 June 2017

Superb singing and skilful acting make a good case for Radamisto in a conceptually ambitious new production which, while not entirely successful, is well worth seeing.

***11

Sensitive negotiations: Handel's Radamisto, Guildhall

By Charlotte Valori

Singing triumphs: Monteverdi's Poppea, Hampstead Garden Opera

By Charlotte Valori, 12 May 2017

A musically sensitive account of Monteverdi’s Poppea, with simple staging and 1950s costumes, sees singing triumph noticeably over the relative theatrical inexperience of HGO’s talented young cast.

***11

Singing triumphs: Monteverdi's Poppea, Hampstead Garden Opera

By Charlotte Valori

Fresh, funny, frivolous: Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience from English Touring Opera in Cambridge

By Charlotte Valori, 26 April 2017

A joyous explosion of tuneful Victorian satire provides an unlikely, yet ideal, contrast to English Touring Opera's Tosca as their Patience tours the UK in this finely-cast, period-perfect production.

****1

Fresh, funny, frivolous: Patience in Cambridge

By Charlotte Valori

Mixed Bach: Bach Reconstructed from The Academy of Ancient Music

By Charlotte Valori, 5 April 2017

Music written by Bach for the Collegium Musicum, and also for the first Sunday after Easter, was played with skill and flourish by this exceptional orchestra; sadly, the singing was not consistently good enough to match.

***11

Mixed Bach from the AAM in Cambridge

By Charlotte Valori

Baroque this Christmas: La Notte di Natale with Spiritato! and Cambridge Early Music

By Charlotte Valori, 9 December 2016

A skilfully programmed evening of Italian Baroque music gave us a Christmas concert with a difference – and, thanks to superb playing from Spiritato!, an immensely enjoyable one.

****1

Baroque this Christmas!

By Charlotte Valori

A welcome return: Monteverdi's Ulysses’ Homecoming, English Touring Opera

By Charlotte Valori, 2 November 2016

ETO's charactistically clear, simple production conveys Homer's story with clarity, confidence, and charm – and even humour – from a fine cast, making an exciting start to fully-staged opera at Saffron Hall.

****1

A welcome return: Monteverdi's Ulysses’ Homecoming

By Charlotte Valori

Autumnal vocal sparkle: Bach and Parry from Cambridge Chorale

By Charlotte Valori, 22 October 2016

An exciting new partnership between Owain Park and Cambridge Chorale got off to a good start with a first concert of Bach and Parry.

***11

Autumnal vocal sparkle in Cambridge

By Charlotte Valori

Anguish with or without words: the Philharmonia plays Schubert and Mahler

By Charlotte Valori, 16 October 2016

Superb Schubert followed by some altogether more mysterious and disorientating Mahler makes for a Sunday night treat at the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Josep Pons.

****1

Anguish with or without words

By Charlotte Valori

Bradford on Avon

Embracing anew: A Fairy Queen at Iford

By Charlotte Valori, 23 July 2016

An especially adapted version of Purcell's Fairy Queen, reworked by Timothy Nelson, inspires an exceptional reading from a talented young cast at Iford.

****1

Bradford on Avon

A Fairy Queen at Iford

By Charlotte Valori

Moreton-in-Marsh

Pain and purity: Janáček's Jenůfa at Longborough

By Charlotte Valori, 16 July 2016

Jenůfa unfurls with chilling intensity at Longborough with the talented Lee Bisset in the title role.

*****

Moreton-in-Marsh

Pain and purity: Janáček's Jenůfa

By Charlotte Valori

Bradford on Avon

Jungle drums beating true: Mozart's Magic Flute at Iford

By Charlotte Valori, 9 July 2016

John Savournin takes Mozart's Magic Flute on an exotic adventure into the Peruvian rainforest: and retrieves more than a sprinkling of Inca gold.

****1

Bradford on Avon

Jungle drums beating true

By Charlotte Valori

Boy Donne good: Toby Spence in Tippett and Britten III, Aldeburgh Festival

By Charlotte Valori, 20 June 2016

Spence sounds confident in an evening of Tippett and Britten at Snape, culminating in a spinetingling account of John Donne's Holy Sonnet X.

***11

Boy Donne good: Toby Spence at Snape Maltings

By Charlotte Valori

A stern Father's Day treat: Mozart Idomeneo at Garsington

By Charlotte Valori, 19 June 2016

Mozart's messy monster of an opera gets a brutalist tidy-up at Garsington, but the determinedly straightforward reading only makes this work's innate problems more obvious.

***11

A stern Father's Day treat: Mozart Idomeneo at Garsington

By Charlotte Valori

Music more than words: Britten and Tippett at the Aldeburgh Festival

By Charlotte Valori, 16 June 2016

Ian Bostridge's exploration of Britten and Tippett song cycles is overshadowed by a fantastic string quartet in a mixed programme at Aldeburgh.

***11

Music more than words: Britten and Tippett at Snape

By Charlotte Valori

Bradford on Avon

So foul and fair a day: Verdi's Macbeth at Iford

By Charlotte Valori, 11 June 2016

Iford's stone cloister makes a suitably eerie setting for a fine traditional account of Verdi's Macbeth, notable for its powerful male leads, from Iford Festival Opera and the CHROMA Ensemble.

****1

Bradford on Avon

So foul and fair a day: Verdi's Macbeth at Iford

By Charlotte Valori

Starting as you mean to go on: Britten's Les Illuminations at Aldeburgh Festival

By Charlotte Valori, 10 June 2016

An evening of exceptional originality and daring in Snape Maltings – not to mention glorious music – got the Aldeburgh Festival off to a striking start for the 2016 season.

*****

Britten's Les Illuminations at Aldeburgh Festival

By Charlotte Valori

Small palette, big picture: Handel's Acis and Galatea in Cambridge

By Charlotte Valori, 20 May 2016

The Academy of Ancient Music gave a finely honed account of Handel's unusual "little opera", written for the Earl of Carnavon's household musicians: a sweet pastoral offering never yet out of the repertoire.

***11

Small palette, big picture: Acis and Galatea

By Charlotte Valori

Lucky Lieder dip: A celebration of Goethe from James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook

By Charlotte Valori, 15 May 2016

An evening of Lieder with James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook promised well, and did deliver occasionally, but sadly enthusiasm got the better of style more than once.

**111

Lucky Lieder dip: A celebration of Goethe

By Charlotte Valori

Light & Shadow: Vox Luminis at Cambridge Early Music Festival of the Voice

By Charlotte Valori, 12 May 2016

A gorgeous evening of supremely confident, and well-executed, Elizabethan choral music from exciting Belgian choir Vox Luminis.

*****

Light & Shadow: Vox Luminis at Cambridge

By Charlotte Valori

Kill or be killed: Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, ETO

By Charlotte Valori, 23 March 2016

English Touring Opera gives Gluck's reformist masterpiece a suitably blood-spattered outing in a production which keeps the opera in touch with its classical roots.

***11

Kill or be killed: Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride

By Charlotte Valori

A dusty curio: Handel's Berenice, regina d'Egitto

By Charlotte Valori, 17 March 2016

A strong cast and fine playing from La Nuova Musica gives Handel's Berenice a reasonably fair outing, but its original plot weaknesses constrain this opera from being anything more than a curio for the Handel connoisseur.

***11

A dusty curio: Handel's Berenice, regina d'Egitto

By Charlotte Valori

Something old, something new: Donizetti's Pia de' Tolomei, English Touring Opera

By Charlotte Valori, 10 March 2016

Donizetti's back catalogue proves just as rich as his well-loved works, with this blisteringly good foray into an extraordinary opera whose UK premiere is 179 undeserved years late.

*****

Something old, something new: Donizetti's Pia de' Tolomei

By Charlotte Valori

Patriot games: Simon Boccanegra at Fulham Opera

By Charlotte Valori, 11 March 2016

Verdi's rarely-performed masterpiece gets an intense, intimate outing with a very fine cast at Fulham Opera.

****1

Patriot games: Simon Boccanegra at Fulham Opera

By Charlotte Valori

Fool for love: Handel’s Orlando at the Barbican

By Charlotte Valori, 1 March 2016

The English Concert give us a truly exceptional concert performance of Orlando, starring Iestyn Davies in the title role, with a strong cast and glorious singing: but it's begging for a proper staging.

****1

Fool for love: Handel’s Orlando at the Barbican

By Charlotte Valori

Survivor's guilt: Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, Guildhall School

By Charlotte Valori, 22 February 2016

Bleak and uncompromising in vision and intention, Britten's The Rape of Lucretia gets a suitably dark, discomfiting outing at Guildhall.

***11

Survivor's guilt: Britten's The Rape of Lucretia

By Charlotte Valori

Delighting the mind's eye: Saffron Opera Group's Das Rheingold

By Charlotte Valori, 17 January 2016

Saffron Opera Group's opening salvo bodes exceptionally well for their planned full cycle of concert performances of Wagner's Ring over the next two years.

****1

Delighting the mind's eye: Wagner's Das Rheingold

By Charlotte Valori

Friars just wanna have fun: Cesti's Orontea with La Nuova Musica

By Charlotte Valori, 14 December 2015

A very naughty translation and some fine singing make for a delightfully comic evening of Cesti's recently rediscovered Orontea at Wigmore Hall.

****1

Friars just wanna have fun: Cesti's Orontea

By Charlotte Valori

Sophisticated Christmas sparkle: The Firework-Maker's Daughter at the Royal Opera House

By Charlotte Valori, 10 December 2015

Philip Pullman's exotic adventure about a girl determined to follow her father's footsteps gets a gently magical outing with Sri-Lankan inspired shadow puppetry and a strong cast.

****1

Sophisticated Christmas sparkle at the Royal Opera House

By Charlotte Valori

Sickly sweet: Ambroise Thomas' Mignon from New Sussex Opera

By Charlotte Valori, 24 November 2015

Fine soprano performances from Ruth Jenkins-Róbertsson and Victoria Simmonds can't save Ambroise Thomas's inanimate object of a plot. Thank goodness Wagner saved us from more of the same.

**111

Sickly sweet: Ambroise Thomas' Mignon

By Charlotte Valori