Dipping a toe into the Rhine

By Mark Pullinger, 29 June 2016

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“It's punchy, it's witty, it's got anvils!”

Reviewed at Royal Festival Hall, London on 28 June 2016

Wagner, Das Rheingold

Opera North

Richard Farnes, Conductor

Joe Austin, Director

Peter Mumford, Set Designer

Michael Druiett, Wotan

Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, Loge

Jo Pohlheim, Alberich

Richard Roberts, Mime

Mark Le Brocq, Froh

Andrew Foster-Williams, Donner

Yvonne Howard, Fricka

Giselle Allen, Freia

James Creswell, Fasolt

Mats Almgren, Fafner

Ceri Williams, Erda

Jeni Bern, Woglinde

Madeleine Shaw, Wellgunde

Sarah Castle, Flosshilde

Orchestra of Opera North

John Findon triumphs in the return of Opera North’s Peter Grimes

Richard Wilcocks, 13th February

Benjamin Britten’s dark masterpiece Peter Grimes returns triumphantly to Opera North, conducted by Gary Walker and revived by Karolina Sofulak and Tim Claydon.

*****

Opera North’s Susanna: how a woman stood up to her abusers

Richard Wilcocks, 4th October

Handel's oratorio is staged by Olivia Fuchs and conducted by Johanna Soller in Opera North's latest successful collaboration with Phoenix Dance Theatre.

****1

To be or not to be: Hamlet returns to the Buxton Festival

Mark Pullinger, 16th July

After 45 years, Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet returns to Buxton in a gripping, psychological staging by Jack Furness.

****1

Opera North’s “fleeing” Dutchman links to plight of asylum seekers

Richard Wilcocks, 1st February

Opera North’s The Flying Dutchman, directed by Annabel Arden, conjures up frightening storms and links the production to the plight of asylum seekers.

****1

Opera North’s gleeful Magic Flute revived

Richard Wilcocks, 27th September

Conducted by Christoph Konz and directed by James Brining, Opera North’s revival of The Magic Flute remains an inventive reinterpretation of Mozart’s classic opera.

****1

Richard Wilcocks, 15th February

Opera North's revives its Cavalleria rusticana production by Karolina Sofulak, pairing it this time with Rachmaninov's early opera Aleko.

****1

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Dipping a toe into the Rhine: Wagner therapy from Opera North